Past perfect continuous for present & future

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

Moderator: Alan

Locked
User avatar
mabxzt
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:21 pm
Status: Learner of English
Location: Tel Aviv

Past perfect continuous for present & future

Post by mabxzt »

I saw on that page https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/ver ... e-time.php two examples that I couldn’t understand.
They give two examples of using past perfect continuous for present and future, apparently in a third conditional sentence, and I don’t understand it at all.
Third conditional is used for something that was, doesn’t exist anymore, so how is it possible to use it for something other than the past?!
By my understanding, the second conditional is more suitable here.
User avatar
Alan
Teacher/Moderator
Teacher/Moderator
Posts: 15268
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
Status: Teacher of English
Location: Japan

Re: Past perfect continuous for present & future

Post by Alan »

For what it's worth, I agree with you that better past perfect conditional example sentences could have been furnished, particularly at least one concerning counterfactual past events (as you quite correctly observe, by far the most typical usage). Note, however, that a past perfect conditional CAN refer to a future event which (for example, by dint of agreement/pre-arrangement, etc.) is to be treated in advance as counterfactual. Thus, the example beginning "If I had been working tomorrow..." could legitimately be interpreted as meaning "If it had (at some past time) been agreed that I would be working tomorrow.... - which, in fact, it was not".
Locked