I was reading till 12 v/s I had been reading till 12

Question

To me, 'till' suggests a point in time i.e. until , and when you want to mention two things happened at different points in time in the past, you ought to use 'had'.

Clock struck 12 - first event
reading continued till 12

I was reading till 12.
v/s

I had been reading till clock struck 12 - continuous state of reading till 12.

I know, the first one seems natural and grammatical; However, I don't think the second one is wrong either.

For the past few days, my mind hasn't been working properly, and it seems that I've forgotten all the basic principles of english. I'm sure what has happened to me

I work till 12 everyday. work all the time until 12; how does it represent continuity ?

I worked till 12 last night. how does it represent continuity ?

Dave Phillips · Accepted Answer

I read until 12 last night. (Simple Past) This is a statement at 12 you were still reading.

I was reading until 12 last night. - (Past Continuous) This is a statement. (This sounds like you were reading for a longer period than the first sentence but we don't really know).

I had been reading until the clock struck 12 last night. - (Past perfect continuous) This tells us you were reading until 12 (we still don't know when you started) but it has an impact on your thoughts at a later time.

For example: Now is 6pm, you are talking to a friend about your day. You say; "I had been up reading the report until 12, so I have been tired all day."

Dave

I was reading till 12 v/s I had been reading till 12

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