Here's an exercise about the past perfect continuous positive form.

The Past Perfect Tense

We don't use the past perfect a lot in English, but it is useful, and it sounds very good if you can use it correctly. Also, it's really easy to make - just the past simple of 'have' and the past participle.

(Learn about USING the past perfect here)

The positive - make it with 'had' + the past participle (usually made by adding 'ed' to the infinitive, but a few verbs have irregular past participles):

(Also, here's some help if you are not sure how to pronounce '-ed'at the end of a verb).

• I had been (I'd been)
• You had gone (you'd gone)
• She had met (she'd met)
• He had played (he'd played)
• It had rained (it'd rained)
• We had bought (we'd bought)
• They had studied (they'd studied)

The short form for 'had' is 'd.
(Be careful not to confuse it with 'would'. Would is followed by the infinitive - 'I'd go', whereas had is followed by the past participle - 'I'd gone').

For the negative just add 'not':

• I had not been (I hadn't been)
• You had not gone (you hadn't gone)
• She had not met (she hadn't met)
• He had not played (he hadn't played)
• It had not rained (it hadn't rained)
• We had not bought (we hadn't bought)
• They had not studied (they hadn't studied)

Here's a exercise about the positive and negative forms.

And to make a 'yes / no' question put 'had' before the subject:

• Had I come?
• Had you eaten?
• Had she gone?
• Had it rained?
• Had he studied?
• Had we met?
• Had they left?

For 'wh' questions put the question word at the beginning:

• When had I come?
• Why had you eaten?
• Where had she gone?
• When had it rained?
• Why had he studied?
• How had we met?
• When had they left?

 

The Past Perfect Continuous

Here's how to make the past perfect continuous. It's 'had' + been (the past participle of 'be')+ verb-ing

Firstly, let's look at the positive form:

• I had been living
• You had been going
• She had been sleeping
• He had been working
• It had been raining
• We had been studying
• They had been cooking

The short form is: 'd been verb-ing. Be careful, because the short form for 'would' is also 'd. However, 'would' is always followed by the infinitive, but 'had' is followed by the past participle.

Next, the negative form:

• I had not been trying (I hadn't been..)
• You had not been working (you hadn't been..)
• She had not been crying (she hadn't been..)
• He had not been shopping (he hadn't been..)
• It had not been snowing (it hadn't been..)
• We had not been reading (we hadn't been..)
• They had not been running (they hadn't been..)