PAST CONTINUOUS

The past continuous:

The past continuous, also called past progressive, 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.

The form of the past continuous:

The past continuous is formed as follows:

to be in the simple past	+ 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.
you, we, they	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.

The use of 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."
• 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."

Remember:

• "Wasn't playing" and "weren't playing" are the short forms of "was not playing" and "were not playing"

More examples: