What the Firkin's is Past Perfect?!

As if there isn't gargantuan amounts to write about Present Perfect, then along comes Past Perfect, and fucks us all up.

a. The house had been built before war broke out.
b. Tension had been building up before war broke out.

Then, there's past perfect simple (a.) and past perfect continuous (b.). Well first up lets see the use of just past perfect. We use pp. to talk about an action or event in the past that happened BEFORE another action, event or reference to time in the past, in the examples war broke out is the past simple, what happened before that (the house had been built / tension had been building up) is expressed in the past perfect. Easy uh?

Why, if a. is simple and b. is continuous, do they both have been? I've deliberately used the same verb in both examples, though they have a different meaning. In a. build = construct, in b. it's a phrasal verb, build up = gradually increase. Okay but WHY been in both, surely been is for continuous, been doing, been living etc.?? Yes, though not always.

Let's see the difference between a. simple and b. continuous first. In a. the action is completed, finished, a single event that happened some time (it doesn't matter how long) before war broke out, the house is complete and brand shiny new (then it gets freaking' bombed in the war), so we use the simple form (but why been?? wait...). In b. the nature of the phrasal verb (gradually increase) tells us that it happened over a period of time leading right up to the outbreak of war. Perhaps a political misunderstanding between two countries started 9 months before the war, things got worse during this time (the tension building up) then WHAMMY, war. Got it?

Oh, the been in the first is because it's passive voice, Like The house was built. As opposed to active, They built the house. So been in a. is to form the passive, passive always has be which changes in form according to what verb tense you are using; been in b. is to form the continuous. Hence, a. been + past participle. b. been + present participle (verb-ing) .

Clear?