The past perfect simple and continuous:
I. Past perfect simple:
1) Form:
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Affirmative
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Negative
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interrogative
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Jane had done her home work
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Jane had not done her home work
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Had Jane done her home work?
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S + had + PP
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S + had + not + pp
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Had + S + pp?
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2) Use:
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Past perfect simple (first event)
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Simple past (second event)
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I had just completed the exam
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I fel t free
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The thief had escaped
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Before I called the police
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You had studied English
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Before you moved to Britain
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He had already left
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When I got to his house
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We had calmed down
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By the time the police came
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He had been upstairs
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When we came home
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We hadn’t noticed
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Until we heard the foot steps
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After I had called the police
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We realized the thief was gone
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The
past perfect simple expresses the relationship in time between two past
events. It shows that one action occurred before another action in the
past. The past perfect simple expresses the first action and the past
simple expresses the second action
.
+++ The past perfect simple is used with some adverbials and prepositions:
before, by the time, when,until, after, already, yet, still, for, just, never………….
II. The past perfect continuous:
1. Form:
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Affirmative
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Negative
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Interrogative
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He had been working
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He had not been working
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Had he been working?
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S + had + been + v + ing
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S + had + not + been + v + ing
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Had + S + been + v +ing
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2. Use:
a) When the action began before the time of speaking in the past, and continued up to that time or stopped before it.
e.g: when I got to the meeting, the lecture had already been speaking for an hour
b) The past perfect continuous is used to refer to an action in the past which continued until another action took place.
e.g: The miners had been digging all night long when an explosion occurred.
c) The past perfect continuous is used to indicate that something occurred for long time before another event in the past.
e.g: - Ahmed had been working in cheese factory for ten years before he retired
- Bob had been teaching in that school for more than twenty years before he became a headmaster.
d) The past perfect continuous is used to explain why an activity or feeling occurred in the past.
e.g: - It was now sixo’clock pm and he was very tired because he had been working since 8:00 am
- My heart was beating too fast because I had been running for miles 
