🔥 EXPLAINED! Past Continuous and Past Perfect Continuous Tenses

hi and welcome back to english with greg in today's grammar lesson we're looking at the difference between the past continuous and the past perfect continuous if you want to take your english to an advanced level this is the type of grammar you need to know so let's go this was a question from one of my youtube viewers if you have any questions that you want me to answer in a video for you just let me know in the comments and there's a good chance i will do a video for you too so what's the difference between the past continuous for example it was raining and the past perfect continuous for example it had been raining well the difference is quite simple we use the past continuous when a long and continuous action in the past was bam interrupted by a shorter different action for example i was eating when the phone rang i was eating this is a long continuous action i was eating when bam the phone rang this is a short action boom suddenly the phone starts to make a noise so we use the past continuous in this situation to describe a long continuous action in the past that bam was interrupted by a short action another couple of examples i was sleeping when you arrived i was sleeping when you arrived so again sleeping is a long continuous action which was interrupted by a short action you arrived i was sleeping when you arrived or i was cooking when i burnt myself i was cooking long continuous action in the past that was interrupted with another short action i burnt myself i was cooking when bam i burnt myself now the past perfect continuous is similar it describes a continuous action in the past but it isn't interrupted by another action it simply happens before the other action that we talk about in the sentence in other words the continuous action in the past stops before the next short action happens so the best example to use to help you know when to use the past continuous or past perfect continuous is the example that i used earlier of it was raining when i left the house it was raining when i left the house this means that we had a continuous action in the past rain okay it was raining which was interrupted by another action i left the house so when i opened the door it was raining however if i use the past perfect continuous and say it had been raining when i left the house remember the past perfect continuous describes a continuous action that happened before this short action then that means that it was raining it stopped and then i left the house i opened the door and it wasn't raining but the ground was wet why was the ground wet because it had been raining another couple of examples i had been walking when the accident happened i had been walking this is a continuous action walking but then i stopped walking and then an accident happened i had been walking when the accident happened where was i did i see the accident well we don't know but what we do know is that shortly before the accident happened i was walking and finally i had been cooking when my wife came home so my wife came home was i cooking at that moment no i wasn't but the food was ready for her to eat because i had been cooking continuous action in the past which stopped before the next action happened my wife came home now to be honest this past perfect continuous is not so common simply because we usually use the past perfect continuous with a period of time like for two hours for three days for five months and this has a slightly different meaning so again let's look at the example of the rain and me leaving the house so remember i said it had been raining when i left the house this means that the rain stopped and then i left the house but if i say it had been raining for two hours when i left the house that means that the rain started two hours before i left the house and when i left the house it was still raining so the only difference between this and the past continuous is that we are specifying a time we are specifying that it started at a specific time in the past before the short action happened a couple of more examples i had been recording videos for two hours when my battery died i had been recording videos again this is a continuous action that happened in the past for two hours when my battery died so i'm specifying the quantity of time that the continuous action was happening when bam the short action happened peter and katie had been going out going out means together as a couple peter and katie had been going out for seven years when they got married peter and katie had been going out continuous action in the past for seven years when they got married for seven years i'm specifying the amount of time that the continuous action was happening when bam short action happened they got married okay your turn i want you to write one sentence using either the past continuous or the past perfect continuous or the past perfect continuous with four for two hours for seven years etc i want you to write that in the comments and i want you to do that with all the youtube videos you watch in english because when you learn something the best thing you can do to reinforce that learning is to use it immediately i look forward to reading your sentences and to help you really understand the difference between the past continuous and the past perfect continuous remember to subscribe to my channel to learn more advanced grammar and pronunciation and check out the description too to see more ways of how you can learn english with me thanks for watching thumbs up if you liked the video and i'll see you next time bye for now you

Channel: English with Greg

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Keywords: english with greg, what is the difference between past continuous and past perfect continuous, Past continuous and past perfect continuous tenses, difference past continuous past perfect continuous, past perfect continuous grammar, past continuous grammar, grammar, learn english grammar, english grammar, pasado continuo pasado perfecto continuo, pasado continuo o pasado perfecto continuo, pasado continuo pasado perfecto continuo inglés, pasado perfecto continuo, gramática inglesa

Id: N2aXMCv1-WM

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020