Question

Choose the past perfect continuous tense form of the verb in the following sentence:
She _______ with Jed for over an hour before Tony appeared.
a)was chatting
b)had been chatting
c)have been chatting
d)has chatted

Answer 1

Hint: Past perfect continuous tense means there should be a have/had as well as an -ing word such as running, walking, etc.

Complete step-by-step answer:

 The given sentence tells us that a girl was chatting with Jed before someone else called Tony appeared. So there are two events which are taking place here. One is that the girl was chatting with Jed and the other is that Tony appeared. So the first action was already complete before Tony appeared. Since a past perfect continuous tense is needed here, the correct answer is option b. She had been chatting with Jed for over an hour before Tony appeared.
Option a is wrong because it is in the past continuous tense. For example, Jim was playing cricket. There is only one event being talked about.
Option c is wrong because ‘have’ is used with plural nouns. For example, the boys have been playing for three hours. In the given sentence, only one girl is being talked about. So, it needs a singular verb after it.
Option d is incorrect because it is in the present perfect tense. For example, she has finished her work.

Note: It is to be noted that the phrase ‘has chatted’ should not be considered to be a past tense because of the ‘-ed’. The word in focus should be the usage of ‘has’ which is in the present tense.