Grammatikübungen › Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Past Perfect Continuous: bejahte Sätze

450 Lückentext-Übungen, 45 Tests mit je zehn

Had been für jedes Subjekt, dann das Verb mit -ing.

Der Bau

Nichts gleicht sich dem Subjekt an — had been ist für alle gleich:

I had been working. She had been working. They had been working.

Die Kurzform ist ’d been: I’d been, she’d been, they’d been.

Der vergangene Zeitpunkt wird meist genannt

Weil die Zeitform bis zu einem Punkt misst, sagt der Satz fast immer, zu welchem:

• By the time the guests arrived, she had been cooking for five hours.
• He had been living in Oslo before he moved here.

Ohne diesen Anker wirkt der Satz unfertig.

for und since

Dieselbe Teilung wie überall: for bei einer Länge, since bei einem Anfangspunkt.

They had been driving for eight hours / …since six in the morning.

Zwei Schritte zurück in einer Erzählung

Eine Erzählung im Past Simple kann zweimal zurücktreten — einmal für ein früheres Ereignis, einmal für eine Tätigkeit, die die Zeit davor füllte:

She opened the door. He had been sitting there since noon, and he had not moved.

Wo es für Deutschsprachige schiefgeht

being und been. Had been working ist richtig, had being working nicht. Im Deutschen gibt es keine Entsprechung, an der du es prüfen könntest, also lerne es als festen Block: had been plus -ing.

Der Anker ist Pflicht. Deutsch kann «Sie hatte fünf Stunden gekocht» allein stehen lassen. Englisch will den Bezugspunkt: By the time the guests arrived, she had been cooking for five hours. Ohne by the time… fragt der Leser, bis wann.

«seit Tagesanbruch» ist since dawn, «acht Stunden lang» ist for eight hours. Das deutsche seit verrät nicht, welches hingehört; die Art der Angabe verrät es.

Der doppelte Rücktritt lohnt sich als Muster. «Sie öffnete die Tür. Er saß dort seit Mittag und hatte sich nicht gerührt.» → She opened the door. He had been sitting there since noon, and he had not moved. Drei Sätze, drei verschiedene Zeitformen — im Deutschen sind es zwei.

Alle Formen

Beispiele

Aus den 450 Sätzen dieser Übung. Die Antwort ist hervorgehoben.

• The students had been working on their essays all day and were relieved when they finally finished.
• They had been playing basketball every evening before one of them injured their ankle.
• The team had been practicing hard all season before they won the championship.
• I had been waiting for that job for months before they finally offered it to me.
• He had been taking the exam for three hours before he finished.
• She had been studying English for years before she became fluent.
• He had been searching for a job for months before he finally got an offer.
• She had been writing letters to him for years before they met.
• The chef had been cooking the meal for hours before serving it to the customers.
• We had been reading that book for days before we finally finished it.
• She had been doing her homework before watching TV.
• We had been watching a movie for an hour when the projector suddenly stopped working.

Fehler, die du vermeiden solltest

Andere Formen von Past Perfect Continuous Tense