The prince had been searching for ten hours when he was beginning to lose hope means the searching was finished that is why he was beginning to lose hope
this is good but can I replace by
“was searching” if at the time of writing he was still searching and did not give up searching even if he was also beginning to lose hope
Answer
You are correct in that “the prince was searching….” is past continuous tense and implies that the search is still going on from the perspective of the writer/speaker.
However, “the prince had been searching for ten hours…” (which is past perfect progressive tense) does not necessarily mean he has stopped searching either.
Examples:
The prince had been searching for ten hours when he gave up.
This specifies that the search ended after ten hours, so the search is over.
The prince had been searching for ten hours when he began to lose hope.
This only says that he began to lose hope, not that he stopped searching. It points to an event that occurred (his giving it hope) and it is that which occurred in the past.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : user5577 , Answer Author : Astralbee
