Past Continuous

Tense

Form of Past Continuous Tense:

Positive Sentence
Subject +

BE +

main verb (V+ing)

+

modifier.

was

listening

to music.

You, We, They

were

dancing

happily.

He, She, It

was

reading

books.

Form of Past Continuous Tense:

Negative Sentence
Subject +
I
You, We,
They
He, She, It

BE
+

NOT
+

was

not

wasn't
were

not

weren't
was

not

wasn't

main verb
(V+ing) +

modifie
r.

listening

to music.

dancing

happily.

reading

books.

Form of Past Continuous Tense:

Yes-No Question
BE
+

Subject +

main verb
(V+ing) +

Was

listening

to music?

Were

you, we, they

watching

Worlds Cup last night?

Was

he, she, it

being

modifier ?

lazy?

Form of Past Continuous Tense:

Wh-Question
Questio
n
word

BE
+

Subject +

main
verb
(V+ing)
+

Who

was

talking

Where

were

you, we,
they

watching

Worlds Cup last

night?

Who

was

he, she, it

doing

at 11 oclock last
night?

modifier ?

to when the phone

rang?

Use of Past Continuous Tense

1. We use the past continuous to say that an action was in
progress at a specific time in the past. The action had
already started at this time, but had not finished.

At 5pm yesterday, it was raining.

I was having dinner at 6pm last night.
Last night at 11 PM, my sister and I (we) were watching
TV.
At midnight, we were still driving through the desert.
What were you doing at midnight last night?

Use of Past Continuous Tense

2. We use the past continuous to say that an action was
in progress at every moment during a period of time.

8:00am

working

workin
g

12:00pm

working

working

4: 00pm

working

working

Yesterday she was sitting at her desk at work all day.

You were working all day yesterday.
Yesterday they were not playing football at 9am.
What were you doing at 10pm last night?
Jimmy was working at 10pm last night.

Use of Past Continuous Tense

3. We use the past continuous together with the past simple.
The past continuous refers to a "longer" or "background"
action that was in progress to indicate that a longer action in
the past was interrupted; The past simple refers to a
shorter action that interrupted the longer action, or
happened in the middle of it.
Johns daughter was
sleeping when he called
her at 8pm.

*Remember: this can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time!

Jimmy was taking a bath

when the phone rang.

A: What were you doing when you broke your

B: I was snowboarding.

Use of Past Continuous Tense

4. We use the past continuous to say that an action in the past was
temporary.

Sarah was waiting for her friend for 20 minutes yesterday.

You were working in the Sales Department last month.
They were living in Paris for a year.

Past Continuous Tense &

Past Simple Tense
We often use the past continuous
tense with the simple past tense. We
use the past continuous tense to
express a long action.
And we use the past simple tense to
express a short action that happens
in the middle of the long action.

Past Continuous Tense &

Past Simple Tense
I was watching TV when Jim knocked the door.
Long action = (watching TV),
expressed with past continuous tense

Short action = (knocked),

expressed with simple past tense

when + short action (past simple tense)

while + long action (past continuous
tense)
I was watching TV when Jim knocked the door.

I was watching TV

When

Jim knocked the

door

Jim knocked the

door

While

I was watching TV

when Jim knocked the door.

,

I was watching TV

while I was watching TV

,

Jim knocked the door