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Every Spanish past tense has a continuous (progressive) form to express an action which is continuing or ongoing in the past.
Learn about El Pluscuamperfecto Progresivo in Spanish
In the case of El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto, this is how the progressive tense is formed.
It follows this pattern for most regular verbs:
|
Estar in El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto + |
-ando (-AR verbs) |
|
-iendo (-ER and -IR verbs) |
It works the same way as the English pluperfect progressive, "had been doing". But remember it is "estar" and not "ser".
Look at and listen to these examples:
|
ESTAR in |
Verbs ending in -AR |
Verbs ending in -ER, -IR |
|
había estado |
llamando |
aprendiendo |
|
habías estado |
||
|
había estado |
||
|
habíamos estado |
||
|
habíais estado |
||
|
habían estado |
For irregular gerunds/present participles see List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -iendo and List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -yendo
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