Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

THE PAST PERFECT SIMPLE VERSUS THE PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE 

357

The principles for choosing between the past perfect simple and progressive are

the same as those which operate between the present perfect simple and

progressive (

Û

352

):

We

’d been playing five minutes when you turned up.

(ongoing event continuing up to that point in the past)

After their departure Edith noticed the small white card lying on the

mantelpiece. She

had been meaning to tell her brother about it, he had a right

to know, but their behaviour 

had put everything else out of her mind.

(‘had been meaning …’ refers to an extended event going on around that time;

‘had put’ refers to a single, completed event that occurred during that time)

And Thursday night I was so cold, and I

’d been sneezing a lot and blowing my

nose, and I thought it was my hay fever. 

(repeated events during the time up to then)

[talking about a man who had tried, unsuccessfully, to make an old clock work

again]

And he went away on holiday and everything, and when he got back the other

people that worked in there said as soon as he

’d gone it had started working.

(single, completed events)