The use of the past continuous tense - English Grammar Tenses

EFL/ESL Grammar: English tenses

The use of the past continuous tense in English

The past continuous tense is used to talk about actions that started in the past and were in progress. If you check the timeline below, the action of reading started and was in progress until the phone rang.

The form of past continuous tense

Subject + (was/were) + verb + (ing)

The use of past continuous tense

Past continuous tense is used to:

To talk about temporary actions in progress in the past

Examples:

It was raining all day yesterday
I was watching TV at night yesterday.

To talk about actions that were in progress in the past when something else happened.

Examples:

While I was reading my books, someone knocked on the door
When I was walking in the street, I saw my friend with his family

To talk about actions in continuity at the same time in the past

Examples:

While my father was reading a newspaper, his phone rang.
I was doing my homework while my sister was washing the dishes.

The affirmative form of past continuous

I was playing football

You were playing football

He was playing football

She was playing football

It was playing football

We were playing football

You were playing football

They were playing football

The negative form of past continuous

I wasn’t playing football

You weren’t playing football

He wasn’t playing football

She wasn’t playing football

It wasn’t playing football

We went’ playing football

You weren’t playing football

They weren’t playing football

The interrogative form of past continuous

Was I playing football?

Were you playing football?

Was he playing football?

Was she playing football?

Was it playing football?

Were we playing football?

Were you playing football?

Were they playing football?

Examples of past continuous in English

I wasn’t doing anything when my friend called me
What were you doing last night when I found next to my house?
Was she crying?
When I got up, my brother was doing his homework.
He was surfing the net when he received a message from a friend on Facebook.

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