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I have gone through some documents in google about past perfect continuous tense and came to know below things.

  1. The past perfect continuous tense (also known as the past perfect progressive tense) shows that an action that started in the past continued up until another time in the past. The past perfect continuous tense is constructed using had been + the verb’s present participle (root + -ing).

  2. Unlike the present perfect continuous, which indicates an action that began in the past and continued up to the present, the past perfect continuous is a verb tense that indicates something that began in the past, continued in the past, and also ended at a defined point in the past.

First point I agree completely, is the second point is correct if so can you please give me examples?

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    What are you skeptical about in the second point? Is it the phrase "a defined point in the past"?
    – mamster
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 18:23
  • Sorry that was so long ago and why d'you think there's any difference in meaning between those examples, please? Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 20:47

1 Answer 1

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The second point is incorrect. The past perfect continuous doesn't imply an end. E.g:

I had been skating for years when I won my first competition.

That sentence is compatible with either ending, e.g:

  1. I still skate, but not competitively.

  2. I gave up skating when I broke my leg.

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