past perfect continous and the other two past tenses

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

welcome!

Lesson goal

At the end of this class you can:

• apply  the past simple, the past perfect, and the past perfect continuous correctly to sentences to narrate the past.

Past simple & past perfect

Fill in the blanks

Yesterday

All my troubles .... so far away (to seem)

Now it looks as though there here to stay 

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Past Perfect & Past simple

Mummy and Rumpi ...... (to gather) from the priest to whom they ........ (to speak) that the vault was watched over by a security guard at night. The guard ...... (to fall) asleep and the thief ........(to enter) the building via a skylight and shinnied down a rope. The priest .... (to tell) them that the thug ...... (to open) the vault with the use of sophisticated equipment.

Tarquin Hall - The Case of the Love Commandos

Past simple: een actie in het verleden met geen link naar het heden.  Stam+ ed/2e rijtje onregelmatige ww.

Past perfect: een actie die in het verleden plaatsvond vóór een andere actie in het verleden.  Had + voltooid deelwoord (stam +ed/3e rijtje onregelmatige ww)

Past simple & past perfect & past perfect continuous

Past perfect continuous 

• to talk about actions or situations that had continued up to the past moment we are thinking or talking about or very shortly before
• For emphasis on how long something has been going 
• temporary action/situation

We had been walking since sunrise so we were very hungry. 

Past perfect continuous and past perfect

• The past perfect continuous is used  for temporary actions and situations, longer-lasting or permanent situations get the past perfect form. 
• The past perfect continuous is used  to emphasise the continuation of an activity, the past perfect often indicate that there is a sense of completion.

Compare

• I had been standing still for over two hours so my legs were quite stiff when I was finally allowed to go home.
• The tree that blew down during last week's storm had stood there for over 300 years. 

Looking ahead

SB154 - Ex. 1