El pluscuamperfecto
en español es el pretérito perfecto del
pasado, dicho de otra manera, el pluscuamperfecto en
español describe un acontecimiento del pasado
como algo ocurrido antes de otro acontecimiento en
el pasado. De los detalles ya hemos hablado en el capítulo
8.5.3. El past perfect continuous
tiene la misma función que el
past perfect, pero describe una acción
duradera. La mejor forma de traducirlo al español en general es con una perífrasis verbal.
Como sucede con todos los tiempos continuos,
hay un verbo auxiliar, to have,
que se puede y se debe utilizar para la negación.
Ejemplos
He
had been reading
a letter, when the telephone rang.
He
had not (hadn't) been reading a letter,
when the telephone rang.
She
had been studying
for her exam, when somebody invited her to
a party.
She
had not (hadn't)
been studying for her exam, when somebody
invited her to a party
We had been
watching TV,
before we went to bed
We had
not (hadn't) been watching TV, before
we went to bed.
They
had been building
a house
They
had not (hadn't)
been building a house
You
had been planning
a trip, then the accident destroyed your plans
You had
not (hadn't) been planning a trip,
so the accident couldn't destroy your plans.
