Complete the sentence: Had you () a long time before the bus arrived?

• A. Been waiting
• B. Waiting
• C. Had waited
• D. Waiting long

Answer: (A)

concentrating on showing how long an action went on before another past moment.

In this sentence, the bus arriving is the later past moment, and you were waiting for a long time up to that moment. To express that ongoing duration up to a past point, we use the past perfect continuous: had you been waiting. The structure is had + subject + been + verb-ing, which communicates that the action started before and continued until the bus arrived.

The other options don’t fit the sense or grammar here. Waiting lacks the helping verb and the continuous form, so it’s not a complete question. Had waited uses the past perfect simple, which indicates completion rather than duration. Waiting long isn’t grammatical in this position. So the best choice is: Had you been waiting a long time before the bus arrived?