Past Perfect Continuous · Exercises
A2Elementary practice
Negatives, questions, short answers and for / since.
Play
- Practice10 exercises at your own pace
- Time Attack60 seconds, as many as you can
- Survival3 lives, harder as you go
- Tense SortDrag sentences into their tense — 60 seconds
- Timelines10 sentences to match to their timelines
- A2 Boss12 hits before you lose 3 lives
- Irregular MatchPair verbs with their past forms — 60 seconds
Want to mix tenses, go endless or pick exercise types? Set up your own session.
What you’ll practise at A2
- had been + -ing
- Spelling: waiting, running, lying
- Negatives: hadn’t been
- Questions: Had you been…?
- Short answers
- How long had you been…?
- for / since
- Timelines: what the tense means
Need a refresher? Learn the past perfect continuous: rules, tables and audio examples.
Sample exercises
A taste of what’s inside. In practice mode every exercise is freshly generated.
Complete the question.
_____ my grandfather been arguing about the holiday for twenty minutes when the storm started?
Show answer
Had my grandfather been arguing about the holiday for twenty minutes when the storm started?
Questions: Had + subject + been + -ing…?
Complete the question.
_____ Leo and Theo been running in the park for hours when the storm started?
Show answer
Had Leo and Theo been running in the park for hours when the storm started?
Questions: Had + subject + been + -ing…?
Complete the short answer to the past perfect continuous question.
Had Lucas been cleaning his room long when the storm started? — Yes, _____.
Show answer
Had Lucas been cleaning his room long when the storm started? — Yes, he had.
Short answers repeat had (not been): Yes, she had. / No, they hadn’t. Don’t contract positive short answers (not “Yes, she’d”): had is stressed at the end, so it stays full.
Put the words in order to make a question.
watching / Felix / TV / on / football / long / been / had
Show answer
Had Felix been watching football on TV long?
Questions: Had + subject + been + -ing…?
Is this sentence correct?
Sam didn’t been chatting with his friends when the storm started.
Show answer
Sam hadn’t been chatting with his friends when the storm started.
“didn’t” should be “hadn’t”. Negative: hadn’t (had not) been + -ing.
Put the words in order to make a negative sentence.
waiting / been / for / hadn’t / boss / long / outside / my
Show answer
My boss hadn’t been waiting outside for long.
Negative: hadn’t (had not) been + -ing.