ENGLISH GRAMMAR for ESL learners
PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
(example : to play / I was playing)
The past continuous tense of verbs in English is formed as follows:
| Past Continuous Tense | |||
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative | |
| Long Form | Contracted Form | ||
| I was playing | I was not playing | I wasn't playing | Was I playing? |
| You were playing | You were not playing | You weren't playing | Were you playing? |
| He/she/it was playing | He/she/it was not playing | He/she/it wasn't playing | Was he/she/it playing? |
| We were playing | We were not playing | We weren't playing | Were we playing? |
| You were playing | You were not playing | You weren't playing | Were you playing? |
| They were playing | They were not playing | They weren't playing | Were they playing? |
- To talk about a continuous action which
was in progress at a specific time in the past :
- Yesterday evening, at 9 o'clock I was watching television.
- What was I doing at 11 o'clock this morning? I was gardening.
- At lunch-time the sun was shining.
- It is also used in sentences with when
or while, to refer to an action which
was taking place when a shorter, brief event occurred.
- Yesterday, while I was watching television, the phone rang.
- When my husband arrived home yesterday, I was cooking dinner.
- I was listening to music when the doorbell rang.
- While she was walking down the street, she witnessed an accident.
Reminder: use of the past simple
The past simple tense is used to talk about finished actions in a finished period of time, for example:- Yesterday evening I played tennis with a friend.
- I received the letter before I left home this morning.
- In August last year I visited New York.