[Grammar] PAST

[Mauricio67]

Please,

What is the main difference betwenn PAST PERFECT and PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS, I mean, how to explain it to the students ?

:up:

 

[emsr2d2]

Please,

What is the main difference betwenn PAST PERFECT and PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS, I mean, how to explain it to the students ?

:up:

The past perfect simply describes something that happened. The past perfect continuous is for something that happened in relation to something else.

I walked to the shop.
I was walking to the shop when my phone rang.

I ate pizza for dinner.
I was eating pizza for dinner when my TV suddenly exploded!

 

[Mauricio67]

Re: PAST PERFECT, NOT PAST CONTINUOUS

I meant PAST PERFECT.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: PAST PERFECT, NOT PAST CONTINUOUS

I meant PAST PERFECT.

Apologies, I misread your post!

I was tired because I had walked to the shop three times that day.

I decided to have pasta for dinner because I had eaten pizza twice that week already.

I had seen my boyfriend only once that month so I was desperate to see him again.

The past perfect still refers to something which happened in the past, but can be an explanation for/connected to something else.

 

[Raymott]

Please,

What is the main difference betwenn PAST PERFECT and PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS, I mean, how to explain it to the students ?

:up:

The difference is similar to that between the present perfect and pres. perf. continuous.
I have driven / I have been driving. (pres. perf.)
I had driven / I had been driving. (past perf.)

Present perfect:
"I have driven a bus before, so I think I can take these people on a short trip."
"I have been driving a bus ever since I got my licence, so I'm not worried about driving in heavy traffic."

Past perfect:
"I had driven along that route before, so I knew the way."
"I had been driving along that route for three years, so I knew the roads like the back of my hand."

The continuous, as usual, simply adds the element of ongoing-ness to the verb.
With continuous tenses, something is happening, was happening, or had been happening in the same situation that the non-progressive tenses describe something that happens, did happen or had happened.

It's often used to describe a situation in which something was happening (over a period of time) when something interrupted it. A discrete event interrupts an ongoing event:
"I'm walking along, minding my own business, and some guy comes up and mugs me." (present continuous -> present simple)
"I was watching television when the phone rang" (pres perf. cont. -> simple past)
"I had been working there for 20 years when they decided to sack me" (past perf. continuous -> simple past)