2014年4月19日 · The well had been producing clean water. The well was producing clean water. The first sentence implies that the well still is producing water, but it's no longer clean for some reason. The second sentence implies that the well is no longer producing water. Of course, context is very important. Here's another example: I had been running. I was ...

2016年5月1日 · The "when I got married" part identifies a specific time in the past, and the "had been studying for 8 years" says that the studying was still going on at another time that is also in the past. Note that it does not matter, in this case, whether I am still studying art in the present - the sentence is correct either way.

2013年2月18日 · Here are three takes on the origin of "have been had" in the sense of "have been cheated." Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Fifth Edition, 1961): have v. To cheat (—1805) : perhaps originally cant [that is "language of the underworld," in Partridge's terms].

To me, "had been" implies a change of state: The phone rang. I was asleep. (No implication of state change. Further sentences would clarify if the speaker woke up, or never heard it.) The phone rang. I had been asleep. (But I after it rang, I wasn't asleep any more.)

2020年6月15日 · "If I had been you I would have done that -- but I was not you so I did not do that (not being you at the time, it was impossible for me to do that)" As you can see: "I was not you" refers to the situation at a particular time in the past -- the specific time that is under discussion. The meaning is "I was not in your shoes at that time".

"The couple had been engaged since the summer," her spokeswoman said in a statement, "but now they have ended the relationship." edit: I believe this is referred to as the Past Perfect Progressive tense (or Past Perfect Continuous )

There's no special magic with "had had", they don't really go together as a pair anymore than "had wanted" go together. So don't worry so much about how to use "had had" as a unit of grammar, they will come together naturally when you want to express the verb 'to have' in the past perfect. Let's consider a different verb for a moment like "to want

2014年8月23日 · Both are subjunctive; the first is past (or were) subjunctive and could be described, in ESL terms, as second conditional, which states a present counterfactual as @FumbleFingers above has said; the second is the "pluperfect/past perfect" (emphasis on the quotes) subjunctive and, in ESL, is called third conditional, which states a past counterfactual (something happened in the past and if it ...

The standard paradigm for what has been called here the "third conditional" is a counterfactual statement about two past events: "If I had studied, I would have passed the test." That paradigm can be extended to a past state of affairs that affected a past event: "If I had been taller, I could have ridden the roller-coaster."

What is the correct word order between have/had, been, and already in statements like the following: By the time the product was officially announced, I had already been using it. Or: By the time the product was officially announced, I had been already using it. Or: By the time the product was officially announced, I had been using it already.