The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

The past prefect continuous tense emphasizes the duration of an activity that was in progress before another activity or time in the past

S + had + been + V1 + ing + O (+)
had + S + been + V! + ing + O (?)
S + hand not + been + V1 + ing + O (-)

Example

The police had been looking for the criminal for two years before they caught him (+)

Had the patient been waiting in the emergency room for almost an hour before a doctor finally treated her (?)

Mrs. Handoko hadn’t been buying the new furniture for more than 10 years (-)

Reading

After the fire

Fireman had been fighting the forest fire foe nearly three weeks before they could get it under control. A short time before, great trees had covered the countryside for miles around. Now, smoke still rose-up from the warm ground over the desolate hills. Winter was coming and the hills threatened the surrounding villages with destruction, for heavy rain would not only wash the sort but would cause serious floods as well. When the fire had at last been put out the forest authorities ordered several tones of a special type grass-seed which would grow quickly. The seed was sprayed over the ground in huge quantities by airplanes.

The planes had been planting seed for nearly a month it began to rain. By then, however, in many places the grass had already taken root. In place of the great trees which had been growing there for centuries, patches of green had begun to appear in the blackened soil.

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