The past perfect continuous tense is used to talk about an action that started in the past, continued for a period of time, and was still happening before another action occurred. It is formed with "had been" + present participle (-ing). For example, "She had been studying for two hours before she took a break."
The past perfect continuous tense is used to express long actions in the past before another action in the past started.It follows this structure:Subject + Had + Been + Present Participle.The past perfect tense, similarly, is used to express an action in the past before another action in the past.It follows this structure:Subject + Had + Past Participle.
The past perfect tense.
We use the ing form with our tenses (present, past, future, etc) to emphasize action that continues or progresses for a period of time. We call these forms of our tenses Continuous or Progressive (you will see both terms for the same thing). These actions don't start and then stop; they continue.A. Present continuous - I am eating my dinner now so I am busy for a while.B. Past continuous - I was eating my dinner last night when my sister called me.C. Future continuous - Soon I will be eating my dinner for a while but I can talk now.D. Present perfect continuous - I have been eating my dinner at 8 PM for many years. (This has continued for many years up to the present moment and hasn't stopped yet. Each occurrence was a continuous action).E. Past perfect continuous - I had been eating my dinner at 8 PM for many years until I decided to eat earlier at 7 PM. (A previous action continued for many years in a continuous manner each time before a certain event occurred - I suddenly changed my habits)There are other tenses that use the continuous/progressive but we don't use them very much at all. So adding the continuous form to a tense just emphasizes action that is continuing. We picture ourselves in the middle of the action as it is, was or will be occurring. It is not action that started and stopped.
Prologue
"had felt" is in the past perfect tense. It is used to show an action that occurred before another action in the past.
The past perfect continuous tense talks about long actions in the past before another action in the past. It follows this structure: Subject + Had + Been + Present Participle. For example: I had been practicing. The present perfect continuous tense talks about an action that has stopped or an action that is continuing up until now. It follows this structure: Subject + Have/Has + Been + Present Participle. For example: I have been practicing. The future perfect continuous tense talks about a long action before a point in the future. It follows this structure: Subject + Will + Have + Been + Present Participle. For example: I will have been practicing.
The past continuous tense is a verb for an action or event in a time before now, which began in the past and is still going on at the time of something interrupting.Example: I was laughing when I spilled the tea.
'Before' is being used as an adverb in this sentence to indicate whether the action of eating squid has occurred in the past.
The form of the verb "had been cleaning" is the past perfect progressive (also called the past perfect continuous).The past perfect expresses that something occurred before another action, both in the past.The past perfect progressive (or continuous) is made up of "had been + present participle", that expresses something started in the past (cleaning) and continued until another time in the past that is mentioned (before her brother offered...).
The three kinds of past tense are simple past, past continuous, and past perfect. Simple past is used to describe a completed action at a specific time, past continuous describes an action that was ongoing in the past, and past perfect is used to show that one action in the past happened before another.
The past progressive tense is used to express action at a particular moment in the past. The past perfect progressive tense is used in a similar way but it expresses longer actions before another action in the past.