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Past Continuous: To Be in The Simple Past (Was/were) + Verb + Ing

The past continuous tense, also called the past progressive tense, describes an action that was ongoing or in progress at a specific time in the past. It is formed using the past tense of "to be" (was/were) plus the present participle form of the main verb (ending in -ing). The past continuous is used to describe: 1. An ongoing action that was interrupted by another action in the past. 2. An action that was happening at a specific time in the past. 3. Two or more simultaneous actions occurring in parallel in the past. 4. Repeated or habitual actions that were occurring in the past.

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380 views4 pages

Past Continuous: To Be in The Simple Past (Was/were) + Verb + Ing

The past continuous tense, also called the past progressive tense, describes an action that was ongoing or in progress at a specific time in the past. It is formed using the past tense of "to be" (was/were) plus the present participle form of the main verb (ending in -ing). The past continuous is used to describe: 1. An ongoing action that was interrupted by another action in the past. 2. An action that was happening at a specific time in the past. 3. Two or more simultaneous actions occurring in parallel in the past. 4. Repeated or habitual actions that were occurring in the past.

Uploaded by

Abdelghani Qouhafa
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Past Continuous

The past continuous, also called past progressive

Structure
The past continuous is formed as follows:

to be in the simple past(was/were) + verb + ing

The affirmative form:

I, he, she, it was playing.


you, we, they were
Examples:

▪ Yesterday evening I was watching a film, when someone knocked on


the door.
▪ This morning I was revising my lessons when my father came in.
▪ Jim and Liza were playing tennis yesterday at 11:00.

The interrogative form:

Was I, he, she, it playing?


were you, we, they
Examples:

▪ What were you doing yesterday evening?


▪ And what was your mother doing?
▪ Where were you going, this morning at 7:30?
▪ What were Jim and Liza doing?

The negative form:

I, he, she, it was not / wasn't playing.


_ were not / weren't
Examples:

▪ I wasn't reading a book yesterday evening; I was watching a film.


▪ My mother wasn't preparing dinner; she was working on the
computer.
▪ We weren't playing cards.

Past Continuous Uses


USE 1
Past continuous is used to show an action that was continuing in the
past until another action interrupted it. The continuing action is past
continuous and the interrupting action is simple past. Here is an example:

• I was sleeping when you called me.

In this example, the action of sleeping was continuing over time until the
telephone call interrupted the sleeping. Here are some more examples:

• She was playing in the park when it started to rain.


• While they were talking, the pizza arrived.
• The car crashed when we were walking across the street.

An expression of time can be used as an interruption as well.

• We were eating dinner at 4 o’clock.


• At 6 o’clock we were still studying for our test.

IN OTHER WORDS

➢ We use the past continuous to say that something happened in the


middle of something else:
Example:
"Bob burnt his hand when he was cooking dinner yesterday"
"While I was working in the garden, I hurt my back."
USE 2
It is used to refer to an action that was continuous (i.e. an action that
was going on) at a particular time in the past.

Yesterday, Liza and Jim played tennis. They began at 10:00 and finished at 11:30.

So at 11:00, they were playing tennis.

They were playing="they were in the middle of playing." They had not finished yet.

Was/were playing is the past continuous.

➢We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle
of doing something at a certain time in the past.
Example:
"This time yesterday, I was doing my homework."

USE 3
Parallel Actions
Past continuous is used to show two actions happening at the same time in
the past, like in these examples:
• I was reading and he was watching TV.
• While she was sleeping, Jack was doing his homework.

Notice the word “while” is often used in these situations:

• While I was cleaning, she was watching television.


• He was talking while she was studying.

USE 4
Repetition in the Past
Past Continuous can also be used to show actions that happened many
times in the past.

• He was always breaking something when he was a child.


• I couldn’t enjoy the movie because the people behind me were talking the
whole time.

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