time in the past. Eg. At 3pm I was driving my car and speaking on the phone, and
that's why I got a fine. Past Simple and Past Continuous. We normally use the ...
Past Continuous
Past Continuous 1.
Form
Was/were + present participle (-ing)
Example:
Affirmative Form:
I/he/she/it was working you/we/they were working
Negative Form:
I/he/she/it wasn’t working you/we/they weren’t working
Question Form:
Was I/he/she/it working? Were you/we/they flying?
2.
Use •
We use the past continuous when an action happened at a specific moment or period of time in the past.
PAST
Eg.
6 am
7 am
PRESENT
FUTURE
At 6.30 I was reading a book. (I started at 6.00 and I finished at 7.00)
1
Past Continuous
•
We use the past continuous to describe a specific action happening over a period of time in the past.
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
January
Eg.
In January I was studying for my driving license.
•
We use the past continuous when two or more actions were happening at the same time in the past
PAST Eg.
PRESENT
FUTURE
At 3pm I was driving my car and speaking on the phone, and that’s why I got a fine.
Past Simple and Past Continuous We normally use the past simple to indicate an action which interrupted an action happening over a longer period of time. Eg.
I was cooking dinner for my family when somebody knocked on the door. (in this case, the “cooking dinner” is the longer action and the “knocked” is the action which interrupted the other).
However, when two actions followed another, the past simple must be used for both.
2
Past Continuous Eg.
Joanne got up, had a shower and ran for the bus.
While and When While and when are sometimes in sentences when talking about past actions. While is normally used to describe the longer action and should be used with the past continuous. Eg.
While I was watching the news, I heard a noise.
When is normally accompanied by the past simple tense. Eg.
When he phoned, I was driving.
Adverbs used with the past continuous We often use the past continuous with an adverb such as always to describe an irritating fact that happened in the past. Eg.
