Anyone Please help me with that . What is the difference&nbsp;She had been Working in the company for 5 years&nbsp;And&nbsp;She had worked in the company for 5 years&nbsp;??/

Rishi

Anyone Please help me with that .

What is the difference

She had been Working in the company for 5 years

And

She had worked in the company for 5 years

??/

Sep 21, 2018 5:48 AM

Comments · 4

In practice, there isn't much difference between the two.

Technically though:

'...had worked...' is the past perfect tense and indicates an action that started and finished in a particular time-frame;

'...had been working...' is the past perfect continuous tense and indicates the duration of an action that was in progress before another action began in the past.

Hope that's not too confusing

September 21, 2018

Agreeing with both of the above.
Had been can be for currently ongoing work or work that has finished.
She had been working there for five years before she lost her job. (She is not working there now!)
She had been working there for five years before she was promoted to manager. (She is still working there now but in the role of a manager)
In both cases her 'working there' is an action that was interrupted in the past. The result of the interruption determines whether the work is still happening now.

September 21, 2018

In your second example (past perfect simple), it’s possible that she had stopped working in that company. In your first example (past perfect progressive), it’s most likely that she was still working in the company. That being said, verbs that refer to one’s main activity (to work, to live, to study) can usually be used in simple or continuous aspect with very little change in meaning.

September 21, 2018