Fill in with Past Perfect Simple or Past Perfect Continuous. When I entered the house something smelt...

1. had been cooking
2. had burnt
3. had visited
4. had met
5. had happened
6. had been playing
7. had left
8. had left
9. had been raining
10. had gotten
11. had been
12. had been looking
13. had been doing

Fill in with Past Perfect Simple or Past Perfect Continuous. When I entered the house something smelt awful. Someone (1) had been cooking and (2) had burnt the meal. I (3) had visited the house once before and (4) had met the family, but I didn’t know what (5) had happened since then. The house was a mess. The children (6) had been playing in the living-room and (7) had left their toys all over the floor. Someone (8) had left all the windows open. It (9) had been raining for hours and all the curtains (10) had got wet and dirty. I asked the children where their parents were. They told me that their mother (11) had been in hospital for the past two weeks. Their father (12) had been looking after them since then. Obviously he (13) had been doing his best, but he couldn’t do any better since he worked all morning and had to leave them alone most of the day. I had to do something to help them.

Explanation:

1. (1) had been cooking: The Past Perfect Continuous tense is used here to indicate an action (cooking) that was ongoing before another action (entering the house).
2. (2) had burnt: The Past Perfect Simple tense indicates a completed action that happened before the action of entering the house.
3. (3) had visited: This uses the Past Perfect Simple tense to show a completed action that occurred before the recent past.
4. (4) had met: Similarly, the Past Perfect Simple tense is used to indicate a completed action.
5. (5) had happened: The Past Perfect Simple is used to express an event that occurred before another event in the past.
6. (6) had been playing: The Past Perfect Continuous tense indicates an ongoing action that was happening before I entered the house.
7. (7) had left: The Past Perfect Simple is used to indicate a completed action.
8. (8) had left: Again, the Past Perfect Simple tense is used to show that the action of leaving the windows open happened before I entered the house.
9. (9) had been raining: The Past Perfect Continuous tense indicates that it had been raining continuously before the moment in the past.
10. (10) had got: The Past Perfect Simple is used to show that the curtains had already become wet and dirty before I noticed them.
11. (11) had been: The Past Perfect Simple tense is used to indicate the mother’s state over the past two weeks.
12. (12) had been looking after: The Past Perfect Continuous tense is used to indicate an ongoing action that started in the past and continued up to another point in the past.
13. (13) had been doing: The Past Perfect Continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing effort in the past which had implications for the present.

This exercise demonstrates the use of Past Perfect Simple and Past Perfect Continuous tenses to describe actions or states that occurred before another point in the past. The key is to distinguish between actions that were continuous and ongoing and those that were completed.

When I entered the house something smelt awful. Someone had been cooking and had burnt the meal. I had visited the house once before and had met the family, but I didn’t know what had happened since then. The house was a mess. The children had been playing in the living-room and had left their toys all over the floor. Someone had left all the windows open. It had been raining for hours and all the curtains had gotten wet and dirty. I asked the children where their parents were. They told me that their mother had been in hospital for the past two weeks. Their father had been looking after them since then. Obviously he had been doing his best, but he couldn’t do any better since he worked all morning and had to leave them alone most of the day. I had to do something to help them.