Past Continuous tense – Past Progressive

USE

We use the past continuous to talk about an action that was in progress at a certain time in the past, an action at some point in the past between its beginning and end

Example: He was working in the garden at 7 o’clock this morning.

The past continuous is used to describe an action that we were “in the middle of” at a time in the past.
- I was watching TV at 8:00pm. (I was “in the middle of watching TV” at 8:00)
- Miguel was cooking at noon. (At that time, Miguel was “in the middle of cooking”)

Structure

Positive/ Affirmative form

Subject + was/were + (-ing) + Complement

Examples:

-          Michael was watching the World Cup match.
-          They were working all night long.
-          Josh and Silvia were talking about getting married.

Negative form

Subject + wasn’t/weren’t + (-ing) + Complement

Examples:

-          John wasn’t eating because he was feeling sick.
-          Jeff wasn’t watching TV.
-          My parents weren’t having a good time because it was very cold in Canada

Question Form

(Question Word) + was/were + Subject + (-ing) + Complement

-          What were you doing last night at around 8:00pm?
-          Was Jim doing his homework?
-          Were they sleeping all morning?

- Past continuous is very similar IN STRUCTURE to the Present Continuous tense. The only difference is that in the present continuous we use the verb to be in the present (am/is/are) but with the past continuous we use the verb to be in the past (was/were)

- We do not use the auxiliary DID with the past continuous.

Examples:

Past Continuous Forms

Positive	Negative	Question
I was singing. You were singing. We were singing. They were singing. He was singing. She was singing. It was singing.	I was not singing. You were not singing. We were not singing. They were not singing. He was not singing. She was not singing. It was not singing.	Was I singing? Were you singing? Were we singing? Were they singing? Was he singing? Was she singing? Was it singing?

While vs. When

Clauses are groups of words which have meaning, but are often not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word "when" such as "when she called" or "when it bit me." Other clauses begin with "while" such as "while she was sleeping" and "while he was surfing." When you talk about things in the past, "when" is most often followed by the verb tense Simple Past, whereas "while" is usually followed by Past Continuous. "While" expresses the idea of "during that time." Study the examples below. They have similar meanings, but they emphasize different parts of the sentence.

Examples: