The past perfect progressive or the past perfect

Question

(a) Meg had been practicing the piano for ten years before she entered university.

(b) Meg had been practiced the piano for ten years before she entered university.

Regarding the two sentences above:

Q1 Which sounds more natural to native speakers? Or, are they pretty much the same?

Q2 I guess (a) is used more frequently than (b). If so, in what case would you use (b) rather than (a)?

Wilpeter · Accepted Answer

Past Perfect Progressive: Had been practicing (regularly)
Past Perfect: Had practiced (at an unspecified time)
“Meg had been practiced…” (incorrect)
Does this help? (a) is correctly written. (b) is not correct

Seagull · Answer

Thank you very much, Wilpeter.
I'm sorry for my careless mistake. I meant to say "Meg had practiced the piano for ten years before she entered university" for (b). What does this sentence mean? Does it mean "Meg had an experience of practicing the piano for ten years before entering university, but when it was done is not specified"?

Wilpeter · Answer

They both have the same meaning because the 'for ten years' phrase provides the time period that the practice was done over.

Seagull · Answer

Thank you very much indeed, Wilpeter.

May I ask a further question? I've been wondering whether the past perfect progressive and the past perfect are different in nuance.

To me, each of the two sentences given here sounds like this:

(a) Meg had practiced the piano for ten years before entering university. After entering college, she might have continued it for a certain period of time (though it is unclear).

(b) Meg had practiced the piano for ten years before entering university. After entering college, for some reason, she quit practicing it.

Am I correct?

Wilpeter · Answer

Interesting! To me, there is no difference inferred except the obvious assumption that a person who has practiced for ten years is unlikely to give it up. So let’s consider instead, “Meg had been practicing medicine for ten years before she entered university.” She likely would not have time to be a doctor while in university. “Meg had practiced medicine for ten years before she entered university.” Same assumption.
Now consider: “Meg had been practicing piano for ten years when she entered university.” Now there is the nuance that the practice was not stopped. She may have enrolled in a music course of studies.

I welcome others here to chime in.

Seagull · Answer

Thank you so much indeed, Wilpeter.
I think that I now get a much better picture of the idea of the past perfect progressive thanks to your examples.

CalifJim · Answer

seagull-
(a) Meg had been practicing the piano for ten years before she entered university.
(b) Meg had practiced the piano for ten years before she entered university.

I took the liberty of correcting (b).

seagullQ1 Which sounds more natural to native speakers? Or, are they pretty much the same?

(a) sounds a bit more natural and useful, but I don't think (b) is unnatural either.

seagullQ2 I guess (a) is used more frequently than (b).

That's probably correct, though I doubt that this proves anything significant about these sentences.

seagullin what case would you use (b) rather than (a)?

I don't know. I suppose if there were no need to emphasize the continuation of practicing right up until the time of entering university, I might use (b). Nevertheless, (b) suggests the same situation, though perhaps less strongly.

I think (a) invites the listener (reader) to imagine the practice in all its detail, as an on-going process. (b) treats the years of practice more like an undifferentiated block of time.

CJ

Seagull · Answer

Thank you for your informative, detailed explanation, CalifJim. I understand.
I really appreciate it because English tentese are always confusing for us.
Thank you very much.

The past perfect progressive or the past perfect

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