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In today's lesson we're going to look at 
the difference between: The past continuous,  

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and the past perfect continuous. These 
tenses are also called: Past progressive  

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and past perfect progressive, same thing. At the 
end of this lesson I have a test for you, and I  

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really want you to tell me how you did on the test. 
Give me your score down below. My name's Arnel,  

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let's start. Let's start with the grammatical 
structures. We form the past continuous - Subject, 

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was or were, plus verb "ing". And remember, you need 
to choose was or were, depending on the subject. 

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Past perfect continuous - 
Subject, had been plus verb "ing".  

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And you can see we use had been, for every 
subject. That's easy. How do we form the negative?

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Look where I put not. I was not 
talking, you are not talking. etc...

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Had not been. I had not been talking, you had not 
been talking. etc... Let's look at those questions,  

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and if i'm going too quickly, you can always 
pause the video to look at those structures.

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Was I talking? Were you talking?

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Had she been talking? Had they been talking? 
So now, the grammatical structures are clear.  

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Okay, so what's the difference? I have 
two timelines, you can see the past,  

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and the present. In the first timeline, you 
can see two actions happening at the same  

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time. In the second timeline, an action 
continues and stops before another past action.  

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It was snowing, so I put on my winter boots. It 
had been snowing, so i put on my winter boots.  

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What's the difference? Past continuous. It was 
still snowing when i put on my winter boots.  

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Look out of the window, you can see it was snowing! 
The actions are happening at the same time.  

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In the second example, the snowing 
stopped, and then i put on my winter boots.  

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Usually with the past perfect continuous, 
there is evidence of that finished past action.  

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What's the evidence here? Well, 
the ground is covered in snow.

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Janine was crying, so i gave her a hug. 
Janine had been crying, so i gave her a hug.  

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At the same. Time in the second example, Janine 
had stopped crying before i gave her a hug.  

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What evidence do I have? Well,
there's a trash can full of tissues.  

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Maybe she has red eyes and a blotchy face.

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Let's compare two more examples.

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The teacher gave all of the students a 
treat because they were being very good.

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I was really disappointed with my low score 
because I had been studying like crazy.

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At the same time. Maybe the teacher was giving 
the students a treat while they were studying.  

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In the second example it's clear, 
the studying is done, I had my exam.

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What evidence do I have? The disappointment. If you 
had been studying like crazy, you would also be  

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disappointed. Here I have the six sentences we just 
looked at. I have the past continuous structures  

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and the past perfect continuous structures. 
We can also see the past tense, past simple  

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tense. We normally use the past simple with these 
two tenses. The continuous tenses are the longer  

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actions, you can see that on the timelines. So why, 
why do we need the past simple with these tenses?  

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Well, with the past continuous it's giving you 
the background, the past simple is a main action.  

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Past continuous, background. Let's look at 
background for just a second. Background,  

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background, background. It was 
snowing, the wind was howling.

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The fire was crackling and popping.

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Ooh jazz music was playing. The past 
continuous is giving you the mood.  

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It's not the main action and you can see, there 
can be several things happening at the same time. 

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I sat in my favorite armchair, drank hot chocolate, 

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and read a book. The past simple gives you the 
main actions. Okay, let's get back to the lesson.

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The past perfect continuous is an action 
that continues and stops before another  

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past action. How can we show that other past 
action? We need the past simple. And remember, 

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this finished past action can't be too far in the 
past compared to the past simple. Otherwise there's  

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no connection. No connection, no evidence, then it 
doesn't work. Let's compare two more sentences so  

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we can go into a bit more detail. I was feeling 
dizzy so i sat down and drank some water.  

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If you feel dizzy your head is spinning. 
I had been feeling dizzy in the evenings, so i  

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decided to book an appointment with my doctor. In 
the first example it's happening at the same time.  

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You might be asking yourself, but what if you 
were still dizzy when you called the doctor?  

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Yes. It's possible the actions can overlap. But 
the past perfect continuous can often emphasize a  

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longer action. You can see i added in the evenings, 
so it's clear that i had been feeling dizzy,  

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night after night after night... after night. Mini 
review: We often use the past continuous and  

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past perfect continuous with the past simple. 
The continuous actions are the longer actions.  

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The past continuous happens at the 
same time as another past action.  

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The past perfect continuous is an action that 
continues and stops before another past action.  

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But, the past perfect continuous 
can often emphasize a longer action. 

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Let's keep going. I have two new timelines: 
Past continuous, past perfect continuous.

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These look the same, what's the difference? Both of 
these tenses can be an interrupted action. Let's  

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look at interruptions. What's an interruption? An 
interruption is something that stops the flow of  

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an action. If you're working an interruption can be 
the doorbell, an interruption can be a phone call,

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an interruption can be your baby crying.

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In grammar, how do we express an interruption?  

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We can use when, plus past simple. 
Again with that past simple.

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The documentary crew was filming 
a reef when a sea turtle appeared.  

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The documentary crew had been 
filming for days when a sea turtle  

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finally appeared. What's the difference? They're 
both interrupted actions? In the first example,  

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I'm just telling you what was happening when a 
sea turtle appeared, it's giving you the background.  

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The past perfect continuous emphasizes 
duration, duration tells us how long. For  

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days! We don't do that with the past continuous. 
For days, for ten years, for five hours.

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In the second example, maybe the documentary was 
about sea turtles and the documentary crew had  

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been waiting for days. You can see I added that 
to emphasize duration. I also added the word  

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finally, so you can really feel that 
they had been waiting a long time.

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Let's compare two more examples. I was wrapping my 
sister's gift when she walked into the room, oh no!  

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I had been wrapping gifts for hours when 
i realized that i had forgotten to remove  

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the price tags! In the first one, that past 
continuous is supporting the main action.  

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The interruption is a surprise.

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In the second example, I want you to feel my pain 
so i emphasize the duration. I had been wrapping  

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gifts for hours. Now, I have to go back unwrap 
all of the gifts and remove the price tags.

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And the duration doesn't 
have to be a long duration.  

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I had only been waiting for two minutes 
at the DMV when they called my name.

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The DMV is the department of motor vehicles.  

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It's the government agency that deals with 
your driver's license and registration,  

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things like that. I have the five sentences 
we just looked at and we have one timeline.  

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For is a great way to show duration but there are 
other possibilities. The documentary crew had been  

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filming since Monday. The documentary crew had been  
filming all week. There are a lot of possibilities.

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Does the interrupted action continue after 
the interruption? It depends on the context.  

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In the first two examples, yeah it continues. The 
documentary crew probably would have continued  

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filming. In the last example, no. The waiting is 
done, because it was my turn. And you can see,  

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when, when, when, when, when. That's 
a great way to show interruption. 

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But there are other possibilities, and other ways 
to show something happening before something else.  

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I had been working at bruce & bit for three 
years before i got my first promotion.  

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Before. By the time the firemen arrived, the 
fire alarm had been ringing for 45 minutes.

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Everyone was having a good time until it started 
to rain. We need to look at one more thing before  

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the test. You know I can't speak about continuous 
tenses without mentioning stative verbs. I have two  

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columns, action verbs and stative verbs. Stative 
verbs are also called state verbs, same thing.  

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Run, play, eat, wash, swim. These are action verbs. 
These are verbs you can see and do. Like, love, want,  

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remember, believe, agree. These are stative verbs. 
Stative verbs express our emotions and our thoughts.  

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Why is this important? Because we don't 
use stative verbs in continuous tenses.  

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Of course there could be some 
exceptions, but as a general rule,  

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don't use stative verbs with continuous tenses. He 
had been believing in ghosts. Were you remembering?

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He had believed in ghosts. Use a past perfect 
simple if it's a stative verb. Did you remember?  

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Use a past simple if it's a stative verb.  

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In this lesson, all the examples 
I gave you had an action verb.

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How are you feeling? I know there's been a lot of 
information! Let's do another mini review before  

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the test. We use the past continuous and the 
past perfect continuous with the past simple.  

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The past continuous is happening 
at the same time as another action.  

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The past perfect continuous is an action that 
continued and stopped before another past action.  

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These two tenses can also be interrupted actions. 
What's the difference? The past perfect continuous  

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emphasizes duration. Also, avoid using these 
tenses with stative verbs. Are you ready for a test?  

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I have eight sentences here, choose the 
correct answer, pause the video to do this.

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Here are the answers. Don't forget 
to let me know in the comments  

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how did you do? Did you get eight out of 
eight? Seven out of eight? I really hope  

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this lesson was helpful and i can't wait to 
see you next time. Thank you very much! Bye!