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:

Past simple, practice with the games!

The simple past tense of the verb to be:

This page will present the simple past tense of the verb to be:

• its form
• and its use.

The affirmative form:

I, he, she, it	was.
you, we, they	were.

Examples:

• I was in London in 1999.
• Pam was in London in 1999, too.
• We were together.
• She was my girlfriend.

The interrogative form:

Was	I, he, she, it?
Were	you, we, they?

Examples:

• Were you in London last year?
• Was Pam with you?
• Were you together?

The negative form:

I, you, he, she	was not.
	wasn't.
You, we, they	were not.
	weren't.

Examples:

• I wasn't in Paris in 1999.
• Pam wasn't in Paris in 1999.
• We weren't in Paris.

Rememeber:

1. wasn't is the short form of was not. You can say either:

• I was not in Paris, or
• I wasn't in Paris.

2. weren't is the short form of were not. You can say either:

• we were not in Paris, or
• we weren't in Paris 

Past Simple in Regular verbs:

The verbs "lived, started, died" are regular past forms. The rule is the following:

Verb + ed

Examples:

The infinitive	The simple past
live	lived
start	started
die	died
visit	visited
play	played
watch	watched
phone	phoned
marry	married

Past simple in Irregular verbs:

The verbs "was, wrote" are irregular past forms. "Was" is the simple past of "to be"; "wrote" is the simple past of "write".
More on the simple past of "to be" here.
There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.

The infinitive	The simple past
be	was/were
write	wrote
come	came
do	did
meet	met
speak	spoke

As you can see we can not predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. You should learn them by heart.

The forms of the simple past:

The Affirmative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they	played.
	wrote
	did.

Examples:

• I played tennis with my friends yesterday.
• I finished lunch and I did my homework.

The interrogative form of the simple past:

Did	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	Play?
		write
		do?

Examples:

• Did you play basketball yesterday?
• Did you watch television?
• Did you do the homework?

The negative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they	did not/didn't	play
		write
		do

• I didn't like the food in the wedding last Saturday.
• I didn't eat it.

Remember:

didn't is the short form of did not. You can say either:

• I did not play basketball, or
• I didn't play basketball.

Exercises to practice, click on the games: 

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4