Odrični oblik se pravi ubacivanjem rječice not, a upitni oblik inverzijom subjekta i glagola "to have".
Past Perfect Continuous upotrebljava se da bi se označila radnja koja je trajala u prošlosti prije neke druge prošle radnje:
Ram started waiting at 9am. I arrived at 11am.
When I arrived, Ram had been waiting for two hours.
| Ram had been waiting for two hours when I arrived. |
| past |
present |
future |
| Ram je počeo sa čekanjem u 9 sati. |
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| Ja sam stigao u 11 sati. |
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John was very tired. he had been running. (John je bio veoma umoran, trčao je cijele večeri)
I could smell cigarettes. somebody had been smoking. (osjetio sam cigarete, neko je pušio).
Past Perfect Continous se također upotrebljava u indirektnom govoru umjesto trajnog
oblika prošlog vremena (past continous tense) u direktnom govoru.
| I had been calling |
I had not been calling |
had I been calling? |
| you had been calling |
you had not been calling |
had you been calling? |
| he, she, it had been calling |
he, she, it had not been calling |
had he, she, it had been calling? |
| we had been calling |
we had not been calling |
had we been calling? |
| you had been calling |
you had not been calling |
had you been calling? |
| they had been calling |
they had not been calling |
had they been calling? |