Question

Choose the past perfect continuous tense form of the verb in the following sentence:
He________ for three hours before a bus finally arrived.
a)Waited
b)was waiting
c)waits
d)had been waiting

Answer 1

Hint: Past perfect continuous tense is used to indicate an action which began in past to past and ended in past.

Complete step-by-step answer:

From the hint given to us, we understand the meaning of the past perfect continuous tense. It uses the auxiliary verbs, ‘had’ and ‘been’, along with the progressive form of the main verb. A progressive form of the main verb is formed by suffixing the main verb with ‘-ing’.
After having understood what past perfect continuous tense is, let us analyze the given options to find out the correct answer.
a)Waited is the simple past form of the verb, wait. Simple past form adds the suffix ‘-ed’ to the verb. It is used to indicate activities that took place in the past. We observe that it is not the verb form that we require. Hence, the option ‘a’ is not the correct answer.
b)Was waiting in the past continuous form of the verb, want. It indicated an activity that did not get over in the past. It adds the auxiliary verb, ‘was’ to the progressive form of the main verb. We observe that it is not the verb form that we require. Hence, option ‘b’ is not the correct answer.
c)Waits is the simple present tense form of the verb, wait. Simple present tense adds the suffix ‘-s’ to the main verb. It is used to convey a habit, generalisation or an activity from the current scenario. We observe that it is not the verb form that we require. Hence, option ‘c’ is not the correct answer.
d)Had been waiting in the past perfect continuous tense of the verb, wait. We observe that it has all the characteristics of past perfect tense as discussed previously. Hence, option’ is the correct answer.
Thus, option’ - ‘had been waiting’ is the correct answer.

Note: One must be thorough with the verb forms in order to not get confused between past continuous and past perfect continuous.