Introduction
The past continuous, also called the past progressive, is used to describe an action that was happening at a particular moment in the past time, i.e., it started before that moment and continued after it. It is also used with two simultaneous actions. That is, two actions that were taking place at the same time in the past. To form the past continuous, we use was or were followed by “verb-ing“.
To get more details about this tense, study the table below.
Basic notes about past continuous
| FORM | – Formation rule: sunject+was/were+verb-ing – Affirmative/Positive: I/He/She/It was doing/working ✔ We/You/They were doing/working – Negative: I/He/She/It was not (wasn’t) doing/working ✔ We/You/They were not (weren’t) doing/working – Interrogative: Was I/he/she/it doing/working ✔ Were we/you/they doing/working? |
| USE/FUNCTION | 1. Continuous/Long action that took place at a point of time in the past 2. Two actions that were taking place at the same time in the past |
| EXAMPLES | 1. When the guests arrived, I was having dinner. 2. Jill was watching a movie while his sister, Clara, was surfing the net. |
| SIGNAL WORDS | -while -time expressions (yesterday‚last Friday …etc)+hour (5:00‚7:30‚12:15…etc) |
Exercise
Put the verbs between brackets in the past continuous (affirmative, negative, and interrogative)
- you (play) cards.
- Alice ( walk ) around the lake.
- Caron (listen ) to the radio.
- we (read) a book about Australia.
- Linda (look for) her ring.
- Fiona and Sam ( visit) the castle.
- Ben (wash) the car.
- Kim and I (wait) in the park.
- My sister (feed) the birds.
- Greg and Phil (count) their money.
- Sarah and Luke ( work).
- Mister Miller (teach) chemistry.
- Barry (drives) a lorry.
- Mandy (have) lunch.
- Albert (plays) tennis.
- Taylor and Bob (cycle) home.
- Annie (clean) the table.
- Benjamin (write) an e-mail.
- Jane (exercise) in the gym.
- Robert (buy) flowers.
