Past continuous or past perfect continuous

Question

We bought a dog last year. My siblings and I were sitting and talking when we suddenly decided to buy a dog.

The second event happened before we bought the dog; however, no matter how I look at it, I'd always use the past continuous in this case. had been sitting and talking sounds a bit stilted and weird to me. Is were sitting and talking correct and is it clear that it happened before we bought it? Do I need the past perfect continuous? Thank you.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Good questions. I'll answer your question based on my understanding to the role. There are teachers to correct it if I'm wrong anyhow.

It's better to use Past Continues Tense in your example above not the other. The interesting thing about using Past Perfect Continues that it's not just about 2 events and whom came first. It's about something happened in the past and continued to another point in the past too for a period of time. It focuses on the period of time. So when you want to pay the listener's attention to the period of time you've spent to do something, it's perfect to use Past Perfect Continues. While when you only care about the interruption that happened at some point in the past, use Past Continues Tense.

If I want to make your example in the Past Perfect Continues, I could say, for instance:

"My siblings and I had been sitting and talking for more than three hours when we finally decided to buy a dog."

In the sentence above, I want to pay your attention to the period of time we spent before finally decided to buy a dog.

"My siblings and I were sitting and talking when we suddenly decided to buy a dog."

Here, I want to pay your attention to the interruption that happened when my siblings and I were sitting and talking. The interruption was that we suddenly decided to buy a dog. So, Past Continues Tense would be the best choice.

To understand better, I think this source below is excellent for understanding the difference between the two tenses.

https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfectcontinuous.html

Past continuous or past perfect continuous

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