1. 1 Past Perfect Continuous

2. 2 Form had + been + -ing She had been sleeping for 2 hours before she left. She hadn‘t been sleeping for 2 hours before she left. Had she been sleeping for 2 hours before she left? Yes, she had./ No, she hadn‘t. What had she been doing before she left?

3. 3 Use (1) n 1) It is used to express a (longer) activity in the past which happened before another action (or state) in the past and still was in progress or was just finished. n When I came home, John had been cooking the meal for 1 hour. (John started cooking 1 hour before I came and was still cooking when I came. = the meal wasn‘t ready yet.) n There was nice ice on the lake because it had been freezing for 7 days.

4. 4 Use (2) n 2) It is used in reported speech to report the sentence in Present Perfect Continuous or Past Continuous. n „We haven‘t been playing tennis for so long before.“ → She said they hadn‘t beeen playing tennis for so long before. n „The sun was shining when we left the house. “ → She said the sun had been shining when they had left the house.