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.