[Grammar] Past Perfect Continuous

[ercantuncer]

Hi. I saw this sentence on a book and I didnt understand why Past Perfect Continuous was used.


'It had been snowing all night.' Why isnt it ' It was snowing all night'?

When a person say this sentence in Past Perfect Continuous does it mean this person didnt see when it was snowing?

 

[emsr2d2]

We would need to know the sentences around it. Do you know when the past perfect is usually used?

 

[ercantuncer]

When he looked outside he was surprised.It had been snowing all night.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Based on that sentence, do you think it was still snowing?

 

[ercantuncer]

I think snow stopped but if it stopped why didnt writer say 'It snowed all night'?

I slept all night. I was sleeping all night. I had been sleeping all night. May you tell me which one is correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

We come back to my original question. Do you understand that there are certain situations in which it is appropriate/necessary to use the past perfect? Do you know the general rules about when to use which tense?

 

[ercantuncer]

I know the general rules but P.P and P.P.C usually make me confuse. I thougt about MikeNewYork's last post and i got it.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That's good. What did you get?

 

[ercantuncer]

I got that we use past perfect continuous to say that something started in the past and continued until another time.The action doesnt continue until now it stops before something happened. When he looked outside he was surprised.It had been snowing all night.

The snow started in the past and continued all night but it had stopped before he looked outside.It had been snowing before he looked outside but at the time of looking outside it wasnt snowing. Am i correct?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, perfect.

 

[Tarheel]

Well, everything has a context. And you can't tell by looking out the window that it had snowed the whole night through. (Maybe the weather report would tell you that.) Perhaps:

He went to the window and saw that there was snow everywhere. He called his friend Tom and said: "Hey Tom! There is snow everywhere." Tom replied: "Yeah, it snowed all night."


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[ercantuncer]

I woke up and looked out.There is snow everywhere.It had been snowing all night. Is this sentence correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Tarheel already told you that it's impossible for you to say that it had snowed all night if you were asleep all night! Are you psychic? When you woke up, there was snow everywhere. It looked as if it had been snowing all night.

Note, still, that it's impossible to say whether it is still snowing.

I was told it had been snowing all night and was still coming down heavily.
I was told it had been snowing all night but had stopped five minutes earlier.

 

[Tdol]

I would say There was snow everywhere. I can't see any good reason for using the present tense there.