Question

My mother .................. in this house for ten years.

• A. was living
• B. had been living
• C. has been living
• D. had lived

Answer 1

Answer:

B. had been living

Understanding the Past Perfect Continuous Tense

• The sentence structure requires a tense that indicates an action that began in the past, continued for a specific duration, and then either ended or was interrupted at another point in the past.
• The phrase "for ten years" clearly indicates a duration of an action.
• When this duration is viewed from a perspective in the past, the Past Perfect Continuous tense is appropriate. It means the living started ten years before a particular past moment and continued up to that moment.

Formation of Past Perfect Continuous Tense

• The structure for the Past Perfect Continuous tense is: had + been + present participle (verb-ing).
• Example: She had been studying for three hours when the power went out. (The studying started in the past, continued for three hours, and then stopped when the power went out).

Key Uses of Past Perfect Continuous

• It is used to describe an action that started in the past and continued up to another point or action in the past. The emphasis is on the duration of the activity.
• It explains the cause or reason for something in the past. For instance, "He was tired because he had been working all night."
• Often used with time expressions like "for" (to indicate duration) and "since" (to indicate the starting point).

Why "had been living" is the Correct Choice

• In the given context, "My mother __________ in this house for ten years," "had been living" implies that at some specific point in the past (which might be implied but not explicitly stated), her living in that house had completed a duration of ten years. This suggests that after those ten years, something else happened – perhaps she moved out, or the speaker is referring to a past period of her life.
• If the action were still continuing into the present, the Present Perfect Continuous ("has been living") would be used. However, the choice of "had been living" firmly places the entire duration and its culmination in the past relative to another past event or a general past context.

Important Distinctions for Competitive Exams

• Past Perfect Continuous vs. Past Perfect Simple:
  • Past Perfect Continuous (had been + -ing) focuses on the duration of an action up to a specific past point.
  • Past Perfect Simple (had + past participle) focuses on the completion of an action before a specific past point.
  • Example: She had been writing for two hours (focus on duration) vs. She had written the report (focus on completion).
• Look for clues like "for" or "since" combined with a clear indication that the action ceased or was completed before another past event.
• Always consider the implied timeline of events to determine if the action is continuing into the present (present perfect tenses) or stopped before a specific past moment (past perfect tenses).