Difference between the Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous

What's the difference between the two?

To understand the difference, it is best to analyze a few examples.

• By the time I was 15, my father had taught me how to drive a car.
• When you arrived, I had already finished my meal.

• So use the Past Perfect, If you want to say that a completed action happened earlier than something else.

  • Jane had been browsing the Internet for fifteen minutes or so when she suddenly noticed it was completely dark outside.

  • We cannot use the PP here because the action was not completed. (In other words, she did not stop browsing the Internet immediately after looking out of the window.)

    Why can't we use the Past Continuous? Because the action of browsing had started 15 minutes earlier than Jane looked out of the window.

    So, if we were to remove "for fifteen minutes or so", we would use the Past Continuous.

    • Jane was browsing the Internet when she suddenly noticed it was completely dark outside.

    • Note: the Past Perfect Continuous often creates a kind of background for the rest of the sentence.

      To sum it up in one sentence: the Past Perfect emphasizes completion (or the result of a completed action) while the Past Perfect Continuous emphasizes the duration or activity of an action.

      One final example:

      • By the time we arrived, he had left the house.
      • By the time we arrived, he had been playing poker with his friends for 2 hours.
      • ‹ Past Perfect up Past Perfect Continuous ›