How To Use Past Perfect Tenses | SIMPLE or CONTINUOUS

Summary

El canal mmmEnglish de YouTube, dirigido por su coach Emma, se enfoca en una habilidad fundamental de comunicación: contar historias en inglés. Para ello, se centra en el uso preciso de los tiempos pasados, especialmente el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo, que permite relatar eventos pasados de manera más precisa y emocionante. Emma compara el pasado perfecto continuo con el pasado perfecto simple, destacando sus similitudes y diferencias. Además de la gramática, ofrece práctica del habla con el uso de contracciones y acento en el habla natural. La lección incluye ejemplos prácticos, ejercicios y un breve cuestionario para reforzar la comprensión y el uso del tiempo pasado perfecto continuo. Emma también recomienda la plataforma Lingoda para aprender inglés y otros idiomas en línea de manera flexible y estructurada. Finalmente, anima a los estudiantes a practicar el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo a través de la escritura y les invita a suscribirse al canal para recibir nuevas lecciones de gramática.

Takeaways

• 📚 La habilidad fundamental de contar historias en inglés requiere el uso preciso de los tiempos pasados.
• 🗣️ Los tiempos narrativos en inglés, como el pasado perfecto continuo, ayudan a contar historias de manera interesante y con precisión.
• 🔍 El pasado perfecto continuo se utiliza para describir una acción que empezó antes de un momento específico y que estaba en progreso en ese momento pasado.
• 👍 Para contar historias más vívidamente, se pueden combinar diferentes tiempos pasados para especificar cómo y cuándo ocurrieron las acciones.
• 📝 Al practicar la estructura del pasado perfecto continuo, se mejora la capacidad de contar historias de manera clara y precisa.
• 🙅‍♀️ No todos los verbos se pueden usar en el tiempo continuo; los verbos estativos, como 'ver', 'saber' y 'oler', generalmente no se utilizan en esta forma.
• 🎶 La pronunciación natural y relajada del pasado perfecto continuo incluye el uso de contracciones, como 'I'd' en lugar de 'I had'.
• 💡 Aunque el pasado perfecto continuo es menos común en el habla cotidiana, es útil para dar énfasis a la duración de una acción.
• 🔄 El pasado perfecto simple indica una acción completada, mientras que el pasado perfecto continuo indica una acción incompleta en un momento dado.
• ✍️ La escritura diaria es una excelente oportunidad para practicar el uso de los tiempos narrativos y contar historias de manera ordenada.
• 🔄 La elección entre el pasado perfecto y el pasado perfecto continuo a menudo depende de la empatía o percepción del hablante sobre la acción, ya sea temporal o permanente.

Q & A

¿Qué habilidad de comunicación fundamental se aborda en el video?

Se aborda la habilidad de contar historias en inglés, que es fundamental para la comunicación.

¿Por qué es útil saber usar los tiempos pasados correctamente al contar historias en inglés?

Es útil para contar historias de manera interesante y capturadora, ya que permite dar información precisa sobre cómo y cuándo ocurrieron los eventos pasados.

¿Qué tiempos verbales se consideran como tiempos narrativos en inglés?

Los tiempos narrativos incluyen el pasado simple, el pasado continuo, el pasado perfecto y el pasado perfecto continuo.

¿Cómo se forma una oración en pasado perfecto continuo?

Se forma usando los verbos auxiliares 'had' y 'been', junto con el verbo principal en forma -ing.

¿Cómo se crean oraciones negativas en pasado perfecto continuo?

Se colocan las palabras 'not' o 'n't' entre 'had' y 'been' para formar las oraciones negativas.

¿Por qué puede ser menos común el uso del pasado perfecto continuo en el habla coloquial del inglés?

El pasado perfecto continuo puede sonar muy formal en la lengua hablada y puede ser más natural utilizar el pasado continuo.

¿Qué son los verbos estativos y por qué no se utilizan en el tiempo continuo?

Los verbos estativos describen un estado de ser en lugar de una acción y generalmente no se utilizan en el tiempo continuo, como 'see', 'taste' y 'smell'.

¿Cómo se debe usar el verbo 'had' en el pasado perfecto?

El verbo 'had' se utiliza de manera uniforme para todas las personas, sin importar el sujeto, para indicar una acción completada en el pasado.

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre el pasado perfecto simple y el pasado perfecto continuo en términos de la acción descrita?

El pasado perfecto simple muestra una acción completada, mientras que el pasado perfecto continuo muestra una acción incompleta o en progreso en un momento dado del pasado.

¿Cómo afecta el uso del pasado perfecto continuo la duración o longitud de la acción en una oración?

El pasado perfecto continuo ayuda a enfatizar la duración o longitud de la acción, indicando que se pasó mucho tiempo realizándola.

¿Cómo se puede practicar el uso del pasado perfecto continuo?

Se puede practicar escribiendo sobre eventos del día o utilizando el tiempo en narraciones escritas para contar historias y eventos en un orden claro y preciso.

¿Por qué Lingoda es una opción recomendada para aprender inglés y otros idiomas?

Lingoda es recomendada debido a su plataforma en línea fácil de usar, profesores nativos, y la flexibilidad de sus clases privadas y grupales disponibles las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducción a la habilidad de contar historias en inglés

El vídeo comienza con una introducción por parte de Emma, la coach del canal mmmEnglish de YouTube, quien enfatiza la importancia de contar historias en inglés, ya sea basado en experiencias reales o inventadas para entretener. Destaca el uso de los tiempos pasados para hablar de eventos pasados y cómo el manejo adecuado de los tiempos pasados mejora la capacidad de contar historias de manera interesante y comprometida. Emma también menciona la estructura del tiempo pasado perfecto continuo y su relación con el tiempo pasado perfecto, prometiendo una práctica de pronunciación y un mini-quizz para practicar lo aprendido. Incluye un agradecimiento a Lingoda, una plataforma de aprendizaje de idiomas en línea que ofrece clases de inglés, alemán, francés y español, destacando su flexibilidad y calidad en la enseñanza.

05:03

📚 Uso del tiempo pasado perfecto continuo en la narración

Emma explica el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo, un tiempo verbal que describe un evento que comenzó antes de un momento específico y que aún estaba en curso en ese momento pasado. Utiliza ejemplos para ilustrar cómo este tiempo verbal puede hacer que las historias sean más precisas y vivas. Se discuten las formas negativas y la importancia de la pronunciación al usar este tiempo verbal, incluyendo la práctica de contracciones para sonar natural en inglés. Además, se menciona que el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo es menos común en el habla coloquial y que a menudo se prefiere el tiempo pasado continuo para sonar más natural.

10:06

🙅‍♀️ Errores comunes con el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo

Emma aborda los errores comunes que suelen cometer los estudiantes con el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo. Destaca que no todos los verbos se pueden usar en tiempo continuo, especialmente los verbos estativos que describen un estado en lugar de una acción. Propone soluciones para corregir estas frases y también señala la importancia de usar 'had' para el pasado perfecto, sin importar la concordancia de sujeto en inglés. Explica las sutilezas entre el pasado perfecto simple y el pasado perfecto continuo, y cómo la elección entre ellos puede cambiar la percepción de la acción como temporal o permanente.

15:07

📝 Practicando con el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo

Para finalizar, Emma ofrece un ejercicio práctico para que los estudiantes apliquen el tiempo pasado perfecto continuo uniendo dos eventos pasados en una sola oración. Anima a los estudiantes a participar escribiendo sus oraciones en los comentarios para recibir retroalimentación. Además, sugiere que la escritura diaria puede ser una excelente manera de practicar el uso de los tiempos narrativos para contar la historia de su día de manera clara y precisa. Finalmente, invita a los estudiantes a suscribirse y activar las notificaciones para no perderse ninguna lección nueva y les desea un buen aprendizaje.

Keywords

💡Narrative Tenses

Los tiempos narrativos son formas gramaticales utilizadas para hablar del pasado y son fundamentales para contar historias en inglés. Incluyen el pasado simple, el pasado continuo, el pasado perfecto y el pasado perfecto continuo. En el video, se enfatiza cómo estos tiempos nos ayudan a dar información precisa sobre cómo y cuándo sucedieron los eventos en el pasado, lo que es crucial para contar historias de manera clara y coherente.

💡Past Perfect Continuous

El pasado perfecto continuo es una forma verbal que describe una acción que comenzó antes de un momento específico en el pasado y que aún estaba en progreso en ese momento. Se utiliza para dar más precisión a las historias y se forma con 'had been' seguido del verbo principal en forma -ing. En el script, se utiliza como ejemplo para ilustrar cómo se puede usar para contar una historia más vívida y precisa.

💡Past Simple

El pasado simple se refiere a una acción que se completó en el pasado pero no indica la duración o el progreso de la acción. En el video, se utiliza para establecer un punto de referencia en el tiempo y se contrasta con el pasado perfecto continuo para mostrar cómo estos tiempos verbales diferentes afectan la narración de una historia.

💡Past Continuous

El pasado continuo describe una acción que estaba en curso en el pasado pero que no necesariamente se completó. Es menos formal que el pasado perfecto continuo y se utiliza comúnmente en el habla cotidiana para contar historias de manera más natural. En el script, se menciona como una opción para su uso en lugar del pasado perfecto continuo para mejorar la fluidez en la narración.

💡Auxiliary Verbs

Los verbos auxiliares son verbos que se utilizan para formar tiempos compuestos, como el pasado perfecto continuo. En inglés, los verbos auxiliares a menudo se contraen con el sujeto, formando una contracción. En el video, se discute cómo los verbos auxiliares 'had' y 'been' se contraen en el pasado perfecto continuo, lo que influye en la pronunciación natural de las oraciones.

💡Stative Verbs

Los verbos estativos describen un estado en lugar de una acción y generalmente no se utilizan en tiempos continuos. En el video, se mencionan como un tipo de verbo que no se debe utilizar con el pasado perfecto continuo, ya que este tiempo verbal se reserva para acciones en progreso. Se sugiere utilizar verbos de acción en su lugar para contar historias de manera más efectiva.

💡Present Perfect Continuous

El presente perfecto continuo es una forma verbal que describe una acción que comenzó en el pasado y que continúa en el presente. En el video, se destaca un error común de estudiantes al confundir el presente perfecto continuo con el pasado perfecto continuo, lo cual es importante para evitar al contar historias en pasado perfecto continuo.

💡Adverbs of Duration

Los adverbios de duración, como 'for' y 'since', se utilizan para indicar el tiempo que una acción ha estado en curso. En el video, se discute cómo estos adverbios se combinan con los tiempos verbales para cambiar ligeramente el énfasis de la narración, destacando la duración de una acción en lugar de su finalización.

💡Temporary vs. Permanent Actions

El video aborda la distinción entre acciones temporales y permanentes en el contexto del pasado perfecto y el pasado perfecto continuo. La elección entre estos tiempos verbales puede influir en cómo se percibe la naturaleza de la acción narrada, siendo una acción vista como temporal o como algo más estable y duradero.

💡Pronunciation Practice

La práctica de la pronunciación es un aspecto clave en el aprendizaje de un nuevo idioma. En el video, se resalta la importancia de sonar natural y relajado al usar el pasado perfecto continuo, utilizando contracciones y enfoque en la pronunciación de los verbos auxiliares para mejorar la fluidez en la narración oral.

💡Lingoda

Lingoda es una plataforma de aprendizaje de idiomas en línea que es mencionada en el video como un patrocinador y se recomienda por su calidad en enseñanza y flexibilidad en la programación de clases. Se destaca su enfoque en el aprendizaje estructurado y la interacción con profesores nativos, ofreciendo clases de inglés, alemán, francés y español.

Highlights

Emma, the coach, focuses on the language needed to tell stories in English, emphasizing its importance as a fundamental communication skill.

Narrative tenses, including past perfect continuous, are crucial for accurately describing past events in a story.

Past perfect continuous is used to describe an event that started before a specific moment in the past and was still in progress at that time.

The auxiliary verbs 'had' and 'been' are used in past perfect continuous sentences, often contracted in spoken English for a more natural sound.

Pronunciation practice is integrated into the lesson to ensure a natural and relaxed use of the tense, similar to native speakers.

Lingoda is recommended for its excellent language learning platform, flexible scheduling, and high-quality teachers.

Lingoda offers a wide range of language classes, including English, business English, German, French, and Spanish.

A special discount code is provided for Lingoda, offering a twenty euro discount on the first month.

Common mistakes with past perfect continuous include using stative verbs and incorrect verb conjugation.

Past perfect continuous is less common in spoken English and often sounds more formal; past continuous may be used for a more natural tone.

The past perfect continuous emphasizes the duration of an action, while past perfect emphasizes the action's completion.

The choice between past perfect and past perfect continuous can reflect the speaker's perception of the action as temporary or permanent.

A mini quiz is included at the end of the lesson to help practice the use of past perfect continuous tense.

Writing about daily activities can be an effective way to practice using narrative tenses and improve storytelling skills.

Subscribing to the mmmEnglish channel and turning on notifications ensures viewers don't miss new lessons and grammar tips.

Emma promises more grammar lessons in the coming weeks to improve accuracy in English language use.

Transcripts

Welcome back to the mmmEnglish Youtube Channel,

I'm your coach, Emma and today we're going to focus on the

language that you need to tell stories in English

which is a fundamental communication skill, isn't it?

When we tell stories, whether they're based on real experiences or

they're made up stories to entertain others,

we're usually talking about something that happened in the past,

a past event.

So knowing how to accurately use the past tenses is really useful

but it's also going to help you to tell stories in an interesting

and engaging way.

You might have seen narrative tenses in English textbooks.

So this refers to verb tenses that are used to talk about the past

and help you to tell a story.

So in this lesson today we are going to take a close look at the

past perfect continuous and of course, I'm going to share

the similarities and differences between this tense

and the past perfect because they're kind of similar.

Even though this is a grammar lesson,

we're going to do some pronunciation practice and have some fun

along the way and make sure you stick with me to the end,

I've got a mini quiz to help you practise everything you learn

in this lesson. Let's get to it!

Before we get started today, I'd like to give a little shout out to our

good friends at Lingoda who are huge supporters of

the mmmEnglish channel and without them,

this lesson just wouldn't be possible.

Now there are a lot of language schools in the world today but

Lingoda is the one that I choose to recommend for you because

their platform, their lessons and their teachers create an excellent

language learning experience. One way you get to interact

and learn with real people

but everything happens online in a really structured organised way.

The flexibility is a huge plus, you can join private classes

and small group classes

twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

And you can attend from anywhere as long as you've got

a solid internet connection.

Their online platform is easy to use and they've got native

teachers available not only for English and business English  

but for German, French and Spanish as well

and with group classes costing just eight euros a class,

I think they offer exceptional value for money too.

Now Lingoda offer plenty of options to suit your learning goals

and your availability including the chance

to experience their classes for seven days

absolutely free before you commit to regular study with them.

Now if this sounds like something you'd be interested in

make sure you check out the link down in the description below.

I'm also going to add the link to their Instagram feed as well

because that's where you can find some real stories

about students of Lingoda including me.

And if you do decide to jump in

and try out Lingoda, make sure you use this code right here

which is going to give you a super cool twenty euro discount

on your first month which is definitely

a great way to get started in 2021.

Now narrative tenses, like I said earlier is just another way

to talk about the past tenses and so they include

the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect

and the past perfect continuous.

And a narrative is a spoken or a written account

of connected events. A story.

And these tenses help us to give accurate information about

how and when events happened in the past

so the past perfect continuous gives us very specific

 information about the state of the action  

and when I say state, I'm talking about whether or not that action

or that event has started,

if it was in progress or it was complete

at a particular moment in the past.

So it helps us to order our stories

but it'll be much easier if I show you an example

so that you can see what I'm talking about.

Last week, I went for a bike ride.

I saw my friend Paul.

So these two sentences are both written in the past simple

aren't they? They're completed actions. They're finished.

When we put them on a timeline we can see that

they both took place at some point in the past but

we don't know when or which one happened first, do we?

So by using a combination of narrative tenses

we can be more precise about how and when these actions

took place so if we use the past perfect continuous,

we're going to bring our story to life.

I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend Paul.

So when I put one of these actions into the

past perfect continuous,

it becomes really clear that the bike riding started

before I met Paul and at the moment in time when I met Paul

the bike riding was incomplete.

I hadn't finished riding my bike when I saw Paul.

So the past perfect continuous describes an event

 an event that started before a particular moment in time

and it was still in progress at that time in the past.

Let's look at another example.

She had been working in the garden

when it started to rain.

So at that moment,

at the moment it started to rain

what was the state of the action working?

Had she finished working in the garden?

No, when the rain started, the gardening or working in the garden

was incomplete. There was still more work

to be done. It wasn't finished.

Now if you've been paying attention, you've probably already

noticed what goes into a past perfect continuous

sentence. They use the auxiliary verbs had and been

along with the main verb which is in -ing form.

Let's just go back to those original examples.

I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend Paul.

She had been working in the garden

when it started to rain.

Now you can create negative sentences by putting not

between had and being.

Had not been.

I had not been riding my bike.

She hadn't been working in the garden.

So before we go any further why don't you take a moment

just to write a few sentences

with this tense just to practise the structure,

add them down into the comments below.

I'll be down there to review them and give a little bit of help

if you need it.

And before we go any further in this lesson, I want to take a

few moments to focus on your pronunciation to make sure that

when you are using this tense you're sounding natural and relaxed

just like me or any other native English speaker

and using contractions with the past perfect continuous is

definitely going to help.

Now if you've watched my lesson about auxiliary verbs

which is up here if you need it,

you'll know that auxiliary verbs are usually

unstressed and it changes the way that they are spoken.

They are usually connected to the subject in spoken English

and that makes a contraction.

In a past perfect continuous sentence

there are two auxiliary verbs had and being

but had is the one that is contracted to the subject

so it's very natural to say I'd instead of I had,

you'd instead of you had,

she'd, he'd, we'd

they'd

and the trickiest one, it'd.

Try it.

It'd been raining all day.

Now the verb been is also an auxillary verb

and although it doesn't get contracted in the same way that

had does, it's also unstressed in spoken English

so you won't really hear people saying

been, they had been here.

What you'll actually hear is been.

Been with a short vowel sound.

I'd been doing the shopping.

You'd been listening to music.

He'd been cooking.

It'd been raining.

You get the idea.

Usually at this point I'd continue on and show you how all

of these contractions sound in the negative form as well

but I've got something that might come as a bit of a surprise.

The past perfect continuous is actually not very common

in spoken English.

It just sounds quite formal in spoken language,

maybe it's all of those auxiliary verbs

so you'll often hear people using the past continuous

just to sound a little bit more natural.

Now if you really want to get some pronunciation practice

with past perfect contractions, you can check out this lesson

up here where I go into it in a lot more detail.

Okay so let's talk about some of the most common mistakes

that my students are making with this tense

and actually, there are two of them the first one is using verbs that  

can't be used in the continuous tense.

Yeah not all verbs can be used in the continuous tense

like this sentence here, something's not quite right about it.

The verb see just like other verbs of the senses

like taste and smell, these are stative verbs

and stative verbs describe a state of being rather than an action

and usually they can't be used in the continuous tense.

This sentence is going to sound so much better if we use an action

verb instead.

I'd been watching the waves when I bumped into Paul.

Or if you really want to use the verb see then just switch the tense.

I saw the waves crashing into the shore

and later I bumped into Paul.

The second mistake that I see my students making all of the time

is this one.

She has been working in the garden

when it started to rain.

Can you see what's wrong with this one?

This is the present perfect continuous, the past perfect uses had.

No matter what the subject is, we use had in the past perfect.

You're used to conjugating verbs for the third person singular

subjects in English, she, he and it

but not with the past perfect.

You only use had no matter what the subject.

You're probably feeling pretty confident with this tense by now

but you might be wondering

well how is this tense different from the past perfect simple?

Well there are three ways to compare these two tenses

and I'm going to go through it right now. Are you ready?

The first difference to remember is that the past perfect

shows a completed action whereas the past perfect continuous  

shows an incomplete action.

We had just been for a bike ride when we bumped into Paul.

Or we could also say:

We had been riding our bikes when we bumped into Paul.

So in the first example

we're using the past perfect simple

to explain that the bike ride was complete when we met Paul.

We're not riding anymore the ride is over

but in the second example,

the past perfect continuous

tells us that the bike ride is still in progress.

It's an incomplete action.

Is that clear? Good.

However both of these tenses can actually express

a completed action, especially when we're using them

with the adverbs for and since which is really common

in perfect tenses, isn't it? Let's have a look at an example.

I had been cleaning for hours to prepare for the party.

Or we could say I had cleaned for hours to prepare for the party.

The meaning is almost the same in both sentences

but the emphasis shifts just ever so slightly

because the past perfect continuous helps us to emphasise

the duration or the length of the action,

you know, I spent a long time cleaning and now finally

the house is clean.

The past perfect sentence emphasises that the action is complete

so I've finished cleaning and as a result

the house is ready for the party.

Now in reality, in many situations, you can use either the past

perfect or the past perfect continuous

and it's just that subtle difference in meaning that makes

your sentences a little more powerful.

Now the third difference that you need to be aware of

is about how that action is viewed.

Is it a temporary action or is it a permanent one?

He had lived in London for five years.

Now in that sentence we view the action as being permanent

using the past perfect but compare that to:

He had been living in London for five years.

Now in that sentence we view the action as being temporary.

It's so subtle. It's not the meaning of the sentence that changes.

Both of those sentences are correct, there's just a teeny tiny shift

in the way that we view the action, whether it's temporary

or it's permanent. Let me give you another example.

My brother had been working in a restaurant for two years

when he decided to study medicine.

So I'm using the past perfect continuous here because

I think of that job as being temporary.

Now, on the other hand, my brother would say:

I had worked in the restaurant industry for two years

before I started studying medicine.

So he's using the past perfect because he viewed that action

that work as being permanent. He thought that that career

would be a permanent one in the restaurant industry.

So you can see that there isn't always a right or a wrong answer,

sometimes it just comes down to emphasis or perception

and the way that you choose to communicate your story.

The way that you choose to express something might actually be

different to the way that someone else does

and that's okay.

All right I think it's time for a quiz now. We've gone through

how to accurately use the past perfect continuous tense.

Now let's practise actually using it together.

I'm going to give you two events or two actions and both of these

things have taken place in the past so all you need to do is

join them together into one sentence and make sure you use

the past perfect continuous.

So for example, the first event is we played football.

This is the thing that was happening first but then

something else happened. It started to rain.

So your answer could be:

We had been playing football when it started to rain.

Okay so now it's your turn to write these sentences.

I want you to write them down in the comments below

so I can come down and check them for you,

give you some feedback if you need them.

I'm not going to go through the answers in this video.

So the first event: We waited for the bus for an hour.

And the second event: The bus finally arrived.

Hit pause if you need to, write your sentence down below.

Okay try this one.

He worked at the supermarket for a long time.

One day he became the manager.

They spent the whole afternoon cooking

but the dinner guests cancelled.

So how did you do? I hope that this lesson has helped to make

the past perfect continuous a little clearer

and hopefully, you feel a bit more comfortable using it now.

Another really great way for you to practise and become

more familiar with this tense is through your writing.

Even if it's as simple and mundane as writing about what you did

during the day, it's an awesome opportunity to practise

using narrative tenses to help you accurately tell the story

of your day in order so that it's clear

when and how these events happened in relation to each other.

If you haven't already subscribed to the channel yet,

make sure you do, turn on notifications so that you know

as soon as I've got a new lesson ready for you. I've got some really

great grammar lessons coming up that are going to help you to

improve your accuracy over the next several weeks.

I'll be back next week with a brand new lesson

but while you're waiting, why not check out this one right here?

I'll see you in there!