I had been eating before I visited you.
I had eaten before I visited you.
How do you know when to use either of them?
Learn English – Had done / had been doing
past-perfectpast-perfect-continuousperfect-constructions
past-perfectpast-perfect-continuousperfect-constructions
I had been eating before I visited you.
I had eaten before I visited you.
How do you know when to use either of them?
Best Answer
It depends largely on what you want to say,i.e. your intention. If you want to emphasize the action of eating as extending over a period of time in the past and having a specific outcome or relation to a later point in the past, so, you should use the past perfect contiuous " I had been eating before....". This means the actions of eating and visiting are close in terms of time of doing them and that you are not hungry now. However, if you just want to state what happened with you in the past chronologically, you use the past perfect "I had eaten before.....". In this case you refer to the fact that you "ate" then "visited" respectively.