Question

Fill in the blank with a suitable past perfect or past perfect continuous form of the verb:
My parents ____________ a surprise party for me, but my little sister told me$!$

• A. Had been planned
• B. Had being planning
• C. Has been planning
• D. Had been planning

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

Had been planning

NOTE: We use the past perfect tense when the action was completed before something in the past. And, the past perfect continuous tense is used when the action was continuing but remained incomplete. Often, when a sentence has two actions in the past, two different past tenses are used.

Here, 'but my little sister told me' is in the simple past tense, as the action was completed before her parents could finish planning the surprise party. As the action in the first clause of the sentence wasn't completed, we will use the past perfect continuous tense here.

Option A - 'Had been planned' is used in the passive voice to explain the sentence in the past perfect tense. For example, 'The party had been planned by us before anyone else could.' Thus option A is incorrect.

Option B - To explain the action in the past perfect continuous tense, we need 'had + been + verb + ing'. 'Had being planning' is not correct as it has 'being'. Hence, option B is incorrect.

Option C - 'Has' is used in the present tense and not the past tense. Hence, option C is incorrect.

Option D - 'Had been planning' is used to explain the action in the past perfect continuous tense. Hence, option D is the correct answer.

'My parents had been planning a surprise party for me, but my little sister told me!'