Please explain to me which is the correct usage.
Balu had worked in several other States when he decided to work in Kolkata.
Or
Balu had been working in several other States when he decided to work in Kolkata.
I think we should use past perfect continuous here but I'm not sure of it. Do we need any more context to decide this?
I've seen many explanations regarding this topic here and also on google, still unsure of which tense to use in which case.
We use the Past Perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action in the past.
We use the Past Perfect Continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another time in the past for a time reference. And it can be used to talk about actions or situations that were in progress at a certain point of time in the past
Do we certainly need time reference to use past perfect continuous?
If I replace "several other states" with a single state say Delhi shall I use past perfect continuous?
And one more question is can we use past perfect when the time reference was given in the sentence like "Balu had worked in Delhi for 5 years when he decided to work in Kolkata"?
It's very confusing topic. Could you please shed light upon the subject and explain to me a simpler way about how to use these tenses?