Past Continuous (Progressive) Tense 

---

Forming Present Continuous

subject + am/is/are + V –ing.
I am studying.
Tom is working.
The children are playing.

Forming Past Continuous Tense

subject + was/were +V -ing.
I was studying.
Tom was working.
The children were playing.

AFFIRMATIVE STATEMENTS			NEGATIVE STATEMENTS
Subject	Past Tense of Be	Base Form of Verb +Ing	Subject	Past Tense of Be + Not	Base Form of Verb +Ing
I He She It	was	working.	I He She It	was not (wasn't)	working.
We You They	were	working.	We You They	were not (weren't)	working.

Yes / No Questions

YES/NO QUESTIONS
Past Tense of Be	Subject	Base For of Verb + Ing	Short Answers Affirmative			Short Answers Negative
Was	I he she it	working?	Yes.	I he she it	was	No.	I he she it	was not (wasn't)
Were	we you they	working?		we you they	were		we you they	were not (weren't)

Example Sentences

I was studying chemistry last night.
In 1992 we were living in Cuba.
Today she’s wearing a blue dress, but yesterday she was wearing a black one.
Jimmy wasn’t working very hard.
The players were not playing well.
When the phone rang I was cleaning the windows.
I fell asleep while I was reading a book.
He was driving fast when the accident happened.

Were you watching television when I called you?
No, I wasn’t. I was listening to music.

Was it raining when you left the house?
No, it wasn’t. It was sleeting when I left the house.

Punctuation and Order

We can change the order of the two parts of a sentence containing a continuous action (main clause). When we begin with the main clause, we do not use a comma (,) between the two parts. When we begin with the time clause, we add a comma (,) between the two parts.

I was walking along the beach when it started to rain.
When it started to rain, I was walking along the beach.

Jonathan arrived while I was sleeping.
While I was sleeping, Jonathan arrived.

My father arrived as my mother was cooking.
As my mother was cooking, my father arrived.

It started to rain just as we were coming out of the building.
As we were coming out of the building, it started to rain.



TIME EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY USED WITH THE PAST CONT:


As we were playing, it started to rain.
While we were playing, it started to snow.
This time yesterday we were playing basketball.
All last night they were traveling through Anatolia.
We were having dinner between seven and eight yesterday evening.
It was raining at noon yesterday.
I was not visiting the museum at ten yesterday. I was visiting the castle then.


NOTE: While/as can be used with Simple Past tense.

As/while he shaved he thought about the coming interview.

See past continuous exercise ↑▲▲▲▲▲▲▲↑