past perf. cont. tense

[aysaa]

Hi,

-It had been raining out and I was very cold.

Could you please tell me if it is fine or not.

[5jj]

If you are talking about a situation in which it is no longer raining, then it is natural. It is also possible if the speaker has come in from the rain. In this case, the fact that it may still be raining outside is not relevant;.

[aysaa]

Thank you so much.

Let's assume that it is 05:00 pm now.

-What had you been doing by 03:00 pm?

Can we construct a sentence as above or must we construct a sentence like 'What were you doing by 03:00 pm?

[5jj]

-What had you been doing by 03:00 pm?

The past perfect continuous with 'by' is unlikely here. If we are interested in activity completed at or before that time, we might ask, "What had you done by 3 pm?"
If we are interested in activity begun before, and continuing up to, that time, we might ask, "What had you been doing until 3 pm?'
If we are interested in activity at that time, we might ask, "What were you doing at three pm?"

[aysaa]

Sorry....I should have wrritten 'until'.
Let's assume that it is 05:00 pm now.

-'what were you doing until 3:00 pm?
-Hey tell me what you were doing untill 3:00 pm.

But, can't we use past cont. tense instead of past perf. cont. tense?

[5jj]

Yes

[aysaa]

We can use...Thanks...The reason why I asked it that I know some people use 'past cont. tense instead of past perf. cont. tense' when the sequence of actions is clear. But I couldn't find it in any book, it's been so fine to learn it. Again thanks...