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Olive file 673 Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Meaning of past perfect continuous in this case

I had been working on my novel when she came in to talk to me. My book says this means I stopped working at the moment she came in or I had already stopped working a short while before. I don`t understand that. To me it means I had been working for a while when she came in.

Thank you.

  

Top answer

olive file 673 I had been working on my novel when she came in to talk to me. My book says this means I stopped working at the moment she came in or I had already stopped working a short while before. It is not clearly interpretable, but the writer must have intended to say that your writing was finished before she entered.

  • olive file 673 I had been working on my novel when she came in to talk to me.
  • My book says this means I stopped working at the moment she came in or I had already stopped working a short while before.
  • It is not clearly interpretable, but the writer must have intended to say that your writing was finished before she entered.
  • '
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1 Answers
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olive file 673I had been working on my novel when she came in to talk to me. My book says this means I stopped working at the moment she came in or I had already stopped working a short while before.

It is not clearly interpretable, but the writer must have intended to say that your writing was finished before she entered. If you were still writing as she

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