Past perfect continuous stresses a period of time before something in the past, whereas past continuous highlights interrupted actions. He was exhausted since he had been exercising for a long time, as this line stresses.
The simple past tense (e.g. I ate) is used in English to describe an event that happened in the past an action that has already been completed by the speaker.
I ate dinner yesterday, but I don't eat dinner today.
I ate dinner last night, but I don't eat dinner today.
Some example of cotinuous past tense are :The sun was shining every day that summer. As I spoke, the children were laughing at my cleverness. The audience was applauding until he fell off the stage. I was making dinner when she arrived. At 6 o'clock, I was eating dinner. She was talking constantly in class in those days
He had been drinking milk out the carton when Mom walked into the kitchen.
I had been working at the company for five years when I got the promotion.
Martha had been walking three miles a day before she broke her leg.
The program that was terminated had been working well since 1945. This are some
example of Perfect continuous past tense.
We use the present perfect simple with action verbs to emphasize the completion of an event in the recent past. We use the present perfect continuous to talk about ongoing events or activities which started at a time in the past and are still continuing up until now.
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