Past Perfect Continuous Tense

A. The Definition Of Perfect Continuous Tense
            Past perfect is used to express activities that ALREADY happened before other activities occurred in the past (see: Explanation of Past Perfect). However, past perfect continuous is used to declare an activity that ALREADY occurred and is still CONTINUING in the past before other activities occur. Obviously let's look at the following illustration:
I had been sleeping hardly, so I went to the doctor

B. Past Perfect Continuous Sentence Patterns

           In making past perfect continuous sentences friends can use two patterns, namely verbal sentence patterns and nominal sentence patterns. Friends can also make it in the form of positive, negative and introgative sentences in accordance with the sentence patterns listed below.

1. Verbal sentence patterns:
(+) S + Had + Been + Verb-ing
(-)  S + Had + Not + Been + Verb-ing
(?) Had + S + Been + Verb-ing + ?

2. Nominal sentence patterns:
 (+) S + Had + Been + Being + Adjective / Adverb / Noun
 (-) S + Had + Not + Been + Being + Adjective / Adverb / Noun
 (?) Had + S + Been + Being + Adjective / Adverb / Noun +? 

C. Examples of Sentences Past Perfect Continuous Tense
              After seeing the past perfect continuous tense sentence patterns above, below is an example of applying these sentence patterns:

1. Verbal Sentences
 (+) I had been waiting for 20 Minutes before the bus came.
 (-) He hasn't been leaving the chair since I sat next to him.
 (?) Have you been singing all the time since you were in Bathroom?

2. Nominal Sentences
(+) I had been being in Jakarta for 3 years before Jokowi became the govenor.
(-) Listen! I had not been jealous when you went to the party with that boy.
(?) Have you been being ill since three days ago?

D. Function of using Past Perfect Continuous Tense

           Actually, in the understanding of past perfect continuous tense above, we can conclude that one of the functions of using past perfect continuous tense is:

1. To declare an activity or event that HAD ALREADY occurred and is still GOING before the other activities in the light period occur.

- I had been working hard all day yesterday.
- Somebody had smoking in the room. There was a smell of cigarettes.
- They had been playing football. They looked very tired.

2. Besides that, the past perfect continuous tense is also used to state the activities that occur in a temporary light period.

 - I had been watching TV for 2 hours before my mom came back home.
 - She has been waiting there since you went inside the shop.
 - He had been smoking for 30 years. 

Hopefully the explanation about Past Perfect Continuous Tense above is useful for friends. If there are errors both in the explanation and writing, please give constructive criticism. thank you...

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