 how are you today? This is Marc. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. He had been studying English for months before he became my student. In this lesson we're going to look at the past perfect continuous so stay tuned. So here we are with the past perfect continuous. Let me tell you first that you need to know the past perfect simple. I can sum it up for you but if you want to watch a lesson on the past perfect simple you may click here. Well the past perfect simple like the continuous uses the auxiliary head plus the past participle for the past perfect simple. If you look at the timeline it's an action that happened before another past action. So I gave you an example. It read she had met her new English teacher before he introduced himself to the class. So she had met her new English teacher before he introduced himself to the class. Here we have before before is a subordinating conjunction. If you want to watch a lesson on subordinating conjunctions you may click there. Before means earlier than the time when something happened. So in that case she had met her new English teacher before so earlier than the time when he introduced himself to the class. So it's an action that happened before another action. Well that's for the past perfect simple. For the past perfect continuous instead you use it when you want to talk about an action that happened continuously in the past before another action. And I drew here the timeline so you can see the past continuous continuously and then the past simple a point in the past. Okay so obviously we use the past perfect continuous to emphasize duration and it's used with another past generally with a past simple. The auxiliary like I said is head and we use the past participle of the verb to be and then the ing verb or ing verb. So let's look at my first introductory example. He had been studying English for months before so subordinating conjunction before he became my student. So if you look at the timeline he had been studying English for months before he became my student. So he became my student is right after in the timeline. So we use also when or because and for since I'm going to take a look at that in a minute. Another example they were lost because and here we have the example with because they hadn't been using a map for example in Rome some tourists so they were lost they were lost right here why because so cause they hadn't been using a map so they weren't using a map so this is before they were lost right and because is showing a cause right. So the formulas the three different formulas so for a positive sentence we use the subject plus the auxiliary which is head then been then the ing verb and then the object. So the another example I have been waiting for years I have been waiting for years when I finally got the news when I finally received the news a negative sentence could be subject then we need the auxiliary plus not for sure to show the negative part of the sentence then been then we need the ing verb and then the object. She hadn't been using her mobile when the teacher collected her test so she hadn't been using her mobile when the teacher collected her test so for interrogative sentence we need if we have the wh question word so who how when why etc plus the auxiliary plus the subject plus been plus ing verb plus etc the time expression for example in this case I didn't use the wh question word so I went through using the auxiliary first had you been running when I stumbled upon you last week had you been running when I stumbled upon you last week stumbled upon means when I met you. Okay like I said we use other conjunctions and for example for or since and we already used for in some examples for years for example right there but since an example I had been watching that show on TV for example I had been watching that show since it started so since is for the definite specific time in the past and for is for a period of time and if you want to watch a lesson on foreign sense you may click there now do not confuse it with the past continuous the past continuous is an action that happened progressively in the past and is finished there is no comparison with another past okay so let's take a look at the example he was thirsty so he was thirsty because he was running so much he was running at that moment and he was thirsty at the same time so at that moment he was thirsty instead if I wanted to use the past perfect continuous is another meaning he was thirsty so he was thirsty I'm thirsty because he had been running so much because he had been running so much so he had been running so this is over a period of time in the past and is finished he had been running so much so right here he had been running so much and he was thirsty right there okay remember that because we're talking about the past perfect continuous we use dynamic verbs and not stated verbs what do I mean by dynamic or stated verbs there is a lesson on this point you can click there to watch that lesson but however dynamic verbs are action verbs like go like study for example like watch watch TV like wait so you can see that we use study right there we used used or using in this case wait running okay we use all dynamic verbs or action verbs we never use it with stated verbs unless there's some exceptions but I'll let you watch those exceptions on the video that I prepare for you about dynamic and stated verbs so never use it with the with the no understand I had been knowing I had been understanding you cannot say it well that's it for today I hope you enjoyed the lesson if you have any comments I mean any questions or if you want to type your own example on the past perfect continuous you may do so under this video if you want to share the lesson you may do so if you want to subscribe to my channel I would really appreciate it and having said that I wish you the best and I see you next week with a new grammar lesson take care bye