Past perfect continuous tense adalah tense yang digunakan untuk mengungkapkan suatu aksi (dengan durasi waktu tertentu) telah selesai pada suatu titik waktu tertentu di masa lalu (jadi kejadiannya bukan sampai sekarang tetapi harus sudah selesai).
Rumus:
Positive (Verbal): S + had + been + Ving + Complement
Positive (Nominal): S + had + been + being + Adj/noun/adverb
Negative (Verbal): S + had + not + been + Ving + Complement
Negative (Nominal): S + had + not + been + being + Adj/noun/adverb
Interrogative (Verbal): Had + S + been + Ving + Complement
Interrogative (Nominal): Had + S + been + being + Adj/noun/adverb
Baca Juga: Kalimat Verbal dan Nominal
Notes:
- Complement –> pelengkap kalimat seperti keterangan atau dapat berupa kata lain.
- Ada kata kerja yang tidak bisa digunakan di tense ini yaitu stative verb.
Contoh:
- We had been spending our holiday in France for several days.
- Had she been borrowing this book from the library for several days?
- I hadn’t been waiting here for you.
Penggunaan Past Perfect Continuous
Mengekspresikan aksi yang panjang di masa lampau sebelum aksi lainnya terjadi.
- I had been waiting for thirty minutes in this restaurant before you arrived (saya telah menunggu selama tiga puluh menit di restoran ini sebelum kamu datang).
- When I came home, my sister had been studying for an hour (ketika saya pulang, adik saya telah belajar selama satu jam).
Memberitahukan berapa lama sesuatu terjadi atau sampai waktu tertentu di masa lampau.
- By the time her mother came, Aria had been finishing a half part of her story (Pada waktu ibunya datang, Aria telah menyelesaikan separuh bagian dari ceritanya).
- I was bored since I had been waiting in this restaurant for 3 hours (saya bosan karena telah menunggu selama 3 jam di restoran ini).
