Past Continuous Tense

Review: Present Tense Continous

High Beginner (3 Dialogues)

Where is Everyone?

Past continuous = I was working 

Past simple = I worked

I. The Past Continuous is formed by combining the past tense of the helping verb "to be" (was or were) with the "-ing" (or the Present Participle) form of the main verb.

subject + was/were + -ing

For example, "She was eating breakfast"

II. 5 Past Continuous Verb Forms:

1. Affirmative (I was reading. You were reading. She/He/It was reading. They were reading. We are reading.)


2. Negative  (I wasn't reading. You weren't reading. She/He/It wasn't reading. They weren't reading. We weren't reading.)


3. Yes/No Questions (Was I reading? Were you reading? Was she/he/it reading? Were they reading? Were we reading?)


4. Short Answers (Yes, I was. No, I wasn't. Yes, you were. No, you weren't. Yes, she/he/it was. No, she/he/it wasn't. Yes, they were. No, they weren't. Yes, we were. No, we weren't.)


5. WH- Questions (e.g., When was I reading? Where were you reading? Why was he reading? How were they reading? What were we reading?)

 

III.  2 Functions of Past Continuous Tense (when to use the Past Continuous)

A. Function #1: Parallel Action

To express an activity that was in progress at a particular time in the past or when another action happened that interrupted the first activity (the activity that was already in progress).

 1. Example: Sarah was reading her favorite book when the phone rang.

B. Function #2:  Interrupted action

To talk about two activities that were in progress simultaneously in the past.

1. Example: Grandma was cooking dinner while I was setting the table.

IV. Time Expressions Used with the Past Progressive Tense

• When
• While
• Always
• Constantly
• At that time
• In those days
• All day
• All evening
• For hours…
• 
  

V. Dialogues

Resources:

https://elllo.org/english/course/L3-03-present-continuous.htm