Past Perfect Continuous · Exercises
C1Advanced practice
Third conditional, wishes and subtle tense contrasts.
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
- C1 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 C1
- Negatives: hadn’t been
- Questions: Had you been…?
- How long had you been…?
- Causes: She was tired because she had been running
- had been doing or had done?
- had been doing or was doing?
- Reported speech: said she had been…
- If I hadn’t been driving… (third conditional)
- I wish I hadn’t been…
- 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.
Find the word that is wrong.
Grace didn’t been walking in the park when the storm started.
Show answer
Grace hadn’t been walking in the park when the storm started.
Negative: hadn’t (had not) been + -ing.
Which sentence matches the timeline?
(Timeline: Going on up to a moment in the past)
Show answer
They had been cleaning the house.
“had been cleaning” is the past perfect continuous (had been + -ing): going on up to a moment in the past.
Write the verb in the past perfect continuous.
She was behind with everything because she _____ (procrastinate) for weeks.
Show answer
She was behind with everything because she had been procrastinating for weeks.
Use the past perfect continuous to explain a past situation with the activity that caused it: She was out of breath because she had been running.
Write the verb in the past perfect simple or continuous.
Sam _____ (read) the book for twenty minutes, but he still hadn’t finished.
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Sam had been reading the book for twenty minutes, but he still hadn’t finished.
The job wasn’t finished (“still hadn’t finished”), so use the continuous: had been reading. “Had read the book” would mean the job was done.
Write the verb in the past perfect continuous.
My older brother’s hands were black because he _____ (fix) the bike.
Show answer
My older brother’s hands were black because he had been fixing the bike.
Use the past perfect continuous to explain a past situation with the activity that caused it: She was out of breath because she had been running.
Make the sentence negative.
You had been planning the trip before you moved abroad.
Show answer
You hadn’t been planning the trip before you moved abroad.
Negative: hadn’t (had not) been + -ing.