Part 1: Understanding Past Perfect Continuous Tense

in this video we're going to look at the hardest past tense aspect in English the past perfect continuous what is it why do we use it and naturally what's the formula which we'll come to at the end I know many students that really struggle with this tense aspect so I want to help clear the confusion let's begin with why we use it we use the past perfect continuous to talk about a process that began and finished in the past and it happened before another event took place but also finished in the past we use this tense aspect to highlight that it was a process not just an event for example Louise had been painting her bedroom when she ran out of paint Jim had been investing too much money into a company that went bankrupt these sentences are in the past perfect continuous so why can't we use a simpler past tense aspect to find out we're going to compare this aspect to the other past aspects the help make sense of it we're going to use however a much simpler example in order to explain to help you understand meet Kathy Kathy went on a diet she was on the diet for three months after being on this diet she became a vegetarian now what do we want to convey here we want to emphasize that Kathy started a diet in the past for a period of time before she became a vegetarian which past tense aspect will accurately tell this information is it going to be the simple past and we do it with the past perfect maybe the past continuous or the past perfect continuous so let's look at this example starting with a simple past heavy dieted when she turned vegetarian does this sentence tell us what we want to say hmm did she die it in the past yes did it go for a period of time we don't know did it happen before she became a vegetarian no the sinful past suggests that she actually became vegetarian first and dieted second this tense aspect has not accurately reflected our story therefore we wouldn't use this aspect for this particular story now let's look at it in the perfect past kathy had dieted when she turned vegetarian so let's check now to see if this one will do the job did she diet in the past yes did it go for a period of time no not in this sentence did it happen before she became a vegetarian yes the order of events are clear in this particular sentence but what isn't clear is the amount of time per diet went for in the past continuous Kathie was dieting when she turned vegetarian now let's apply our test did she died in the past yes did it go for a period of time yes did it happen before she became a vegetarian yes so what's wrong with this tense aspect for this sentence it's inaccurate because earlier we said that Kathie dieted for three months and then she became a vegetarian this aspect is telling us however that Kathie became a vegetarian during the time of her diet instead of after so whilst it's technically correct it's not telling us Cathy's story accurately now let's see this sentence in the past perfect continuous Kathy had been dieting when she turned vegetarian so let's do the test did she die it in the past yes did it go for a period of time yes did it happen before she became a vegetarian yes this sentence tells us that her dieting finished before she became a vegetarian it also tells us that the diet lasted for a period of time the most important piece of this tense aspect is the phrase had been this clearly tells us three things one it tells us which event came first in this case dieting two it tells us that the first event was a process and three it tells us that both events finished in the past all of these points distinguish the past perfect continuous from the other past tense aspects so now let's look at the formula we start with the subject plus head bin plus the verb and ing bye for now

Channel: English Resource Lab - Erlkis

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Keywords: erlkisabc, English lessons, Free English, English lesson, English video, vocabulary, learn grammar, English speaking, spoken English, learn English, speak English, speaking English, fluent English, fluency in English, English training video, speak fluent English, accent training, sentences, phrases, idioms, listening skills, past perfect continuous, past perfect continuous tense, english grammar, erlkis

Id: dKl_W91NjW4

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 20 2016