Past Perfect Continuous or Past Simple?

How to choose between the past perfect continuous and the past simple

Uses of the past simple

Completed actions, states or habits in the past.

1. It is used for completed actions, states or habits in the past accompanied by a finished time reference such as 'yesterday', 'last week', 'at 2 o'clock' or 'in 2003'.

• I went to the cinema yesterday.
• We spent a lot of time in Japan in 2007.

2. It is used when general knowledge tells us that the period in question is over, including cases where the person referred to is no longer alive.

• Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa.
• The Vikings invaded Britain.

3. It supplies the detail of an event first introduced by the present perfect or another tense. This use is often described as giving the details of news.

• I've hurt my leg. I fell off a ladder when I was painting my bedroom.
• I've been on holiday. I went to Spain and Portugal.

4. In narrative and in sequences of events, the past simple carries the actions of the story while the past continuous supplies the background.

• He went to a café. People were chatting and music was playing. He sat down and ordered a coffee.

Unreal or imaginary situations in the present or future.

5. The past simple also refers to what is unreal in the present or the future. It appears in the second conditional and after verbs such as 'wish'.

• If I won the lottery, I would buy a house.
• I wish I had more time!

Uses of the past perfect continuous

1. Something that began in the past and continued up to another past action or time. The past perfect continuous expresses how long, exactly as the present perfect continuous does, except that the action runs up to a point in the past rather than to the present. 'For + time' is usual. The past perfect simple is also possible here, particularly with stative verbs.

• She had been working at that company for a year when she met Vincent.
• I'd been walking for hours when I finally found the house.
• We'd been living in Berlin for three months when we had to leave.

2. Something that finished shortly before another past event, normally in order to account for a result visible at that earlier moment. The parallel with the present perfect continuous is close, the difference being that the action ends before a point in the past rather than before the present.

• The pavement was wet, it had been raining. (The rain had finished before the time I'm describing in the past. We could see the result of the rain.)
• The children had been playing and so the room was a mess!
• I'd been working before I saw you and that's why I was really tired.