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Guest Posted 23 years ago
Grammar

Past perfect X simple past X past perfect continuous

hello,

could you please explain when i use the past perfect, when i use the past perfect continuous and the simple past? I never know when i have to use each case.
  

Top answer

: yesterday, last year, ... ago: Yesterday, I went to school. Last year, he visited his uncle.

— Pemmican

  • : yesterday, last year, ...
  • ago: Yesterday, I went to school.
  • Last year, he visited his uncle.
  • He died in Spain two years ago.
  • The Past Perfect Progressive is used to express an action that had been in progress (in the past) when another event in the past took place, so it expresses the background action: While he had been reading the book, his uncle came back home.
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18 Answers
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You use the Simple Past for an action or event which took place and was finished in the past, signal words are e.g.: yesterday, last year, ... ago:
Yesterday, I went to school. Last year, he visited his uncle. He died in Spain two years ago.

The Past Perfect Progressive is used to express an action that had been in progress (in the past) when another event in the past took place, s
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PemmicanYou use the Simple Past for an action or event which took place and was finished in the past, signal words are e.g.: yesterday, last year, ... ago:
Yesterday, I went to school. Last year, he visited his uncle. He died in Spain two years ago.

The Past Perfect Progressive is used to express an action that had been in progress (in the past) when anothe
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0I am not a native speaker of English...but I dont think I agree with your use of the past perfect progressive!!!!!!!!02br
02br
001. 01font00While he 01font00had been reading02font00 the book02font00, his uncle 01font00came02font00 back. 02
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0 Guest:02br
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00 Click on the buttons underneath your original posting and you will find many threads on these subjects. 0-
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0Marius, I thought I knew the past perfect and all the tenses in Egnlish very werll!!! Not only did I learn them well, but I also thought I would waste my time reading about them again!!!02br
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00I guess I was wrong today!!02br
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00I read many threads Marius before I replied to this thread. Maybe I got more confused.02br
02br
00I
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Magic7912cite101. 11font10While he 11font10had been reading12font10 the book12font10, his uncle 11font10came12font10 back. 12br
12br
11font10past perf
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Magic7912cite101. 11font10While he 11font10had been reading12font10 the book12font10, his uncle 11font10came12font10 back. 12br
12blockquote
10This is a more typical si
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0Thanks MrPedantic.02br
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00Thanks Marius.02br
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00So I guess we could use both without any difference in meaning:02br
02br
001. While he was reading the book, his uncle came back.02br
02br
00and02br
02br
002. While he had been reading the book, his uncle came back.02br
02br
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0Hello Magic02br
02br
001. While X, Y.02br
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00In this structure, when "while" has a temporal sense, Y takes place 01i00during02i00 X. So we can't imagine Y happening 01i00before02i00 X.02br
02br
00Thus sentence #2 doesn't make sense: if the reading happens before the coming, as the past
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Pemmican12cite10The Past Perfect Progressive is used to express an action that had been in progress (in the past) when another event in the past took place, so it expresses the background action: 12br
10While he had been reading the book, his uncle came back home. 12br
10While I had been doing my homework,
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