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Past Continuous Tense
subject | + | auxiliary verb BE | + | main verb |
was | base + ing |
Look at these example sentences with the past continuous tense:
| subject | auxiliary verb |
| main verb |
|
+ | I | was |
| watching | TV. |
+ | You | were |
| working | hard. |
- | He, she, it | was | not | helping | Mary. |
- | We | were | not | joking. |
|
? | Were | you |
| being | silly? |
? | Were | they |
| playing | football? |
Past Continuous Tense + Simple Past Tense
We often use the past continuous tense with the simple past tense. We use the past continuous tense to express a long action. And we use the simple past tense to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas with when or while.
There are four basic combinations:
| I was watching TV | when | You telephoned. |
When | You telephoned |
| I was watching TV. |
| You telephoned | while | I was watching TV |
While | I was watching TV |
| You telephoned. |
