Saturday, July 31

The Proposal: Past Perfect x Past Perfect Continuous

Romantic comedies are not my favorite kind of movie, but they usually have great scenes for grammar. This one is no exception. I think this is one of the funniest scenes involving dogs that I have ever seen. I used it to practice contrasting the past perfect and the past perfect continuous tenses.





A. Fill in the blanks with the past perfect or the past perfect continuous form of the verbs in parentheses. When both are possible, use the past perfect continuous.



1. She _______________ (leave) the house when the dog started following her outside.


2. She _________________(talk) on the phone for a few minutes when the eagle fetched the dog.



3. The eagle _____________ (fly) with the dog in its claws when she threw the phone at the bird.


4. The eagle ___________ (drop) the dog when she caught him before he hit the ground.


5. She ______________ (run) away from the eagle when it suddenly took her phone from her hands.


6. She _________________ (carry) the dog around the yard when her fiance and his family finally saw her there.



7. She ___________(let) the dog go when the couple held each other in the garden.



Answer Key:

1.had left
2. had been talking
3. had been flying
4. had dropped
5. had been running
6. had been carrying
7. had let

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