why past continuous in this sentence?

Question

Why is past continuous(were already standing) used in this sentence instead of past perfect continuous(had already been standing)?Here is the paragraph:"Lars: Excuse me, which movie are you waiting for? Tony:We are waitingfor the new Stars Wars movie. In fact, we have been waiting here for more than five hours. Lars: Five hours? When did you arrive? Tony: We (get) got here at 6:00 o'clock this morning. More than forty people (stand, already) were already standing here waiting for tickets when we arrived.

Blue Jay · Accepted Answer

Were already standing describes the situation at the moment they arrived. It's a "snapshot" of the moment.
Had already been standing would describe events leading up to that moment. It would normally require some sort of indication of the time period involved, for example More than forty people had already been standing there for three hours waiting for tickets when we arrived.

CalifJim · Answer

smarko1983Why is past continuous(were already standing) used

Consider it as the past version of a similar situation in the present.

At the moment Tony first arrives there he describes what he sees thus: More than forty people are already standing here.
(He has no knowledge about the situation before he arrived, because he has just arrived. He hasn't been standing here himself, so he won't say upon his arrival: More than forty people have been standing here.)

The description in the past goes like this: (When Tony arrived) more than forty people were already standing here. (Again, he hadn't been standing here himself, so he has no knowledge of the situation previous to his arrival. Therefore, we can't say that when he arrived, more than forty people had been standing here.)

In general, when we first observe a situation, we don't use a perfect tense to describe what we observe. For example, if you enter a room where many people seem to be having a good time, you say "People are having a good time here", not "People have been having a good time here". If you hear someone coughing, you say "Someone is coughing", not "Someone has been coughing". If you turn on the radio and the news is on, you say "They're reading the news", not "They've been reading the news".

CJ

Smarko1983 · Answer

Thank you, very detailed explanation!

why past continuous in this sentence?

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