Last updated on January 13th, 2022 at 06:42 pm
English Past Continuous Tense and Example Sentences! Looking to improve your English skills? The past continuous tense is a great place to start. This grammatical construction can be tricky for ESL students, but with a little practice you’ll be able to use it like a pro. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the past continuous tense and outline some of its key uses.
If you’re like most ESL students, you have probably figured out that the past continuous tense is pretty tricky. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. In this post, we’ll go over the different forms of the past continuous tense and provide some tips for using it effectively. We’ll also give you a few examples so you can see how it works in practice. So without further ado, let’s get started!
What is past continuous tense?
The past continuous tense is used to describe an action that was happening in the past. For example, ‘I was watching TV’.
The structure of this tense is: SUBJECT + WAS/WERE + VERB -ING
Example sentence for Past Continuous Tense: I was watching TV.
Where we use past continuous tense?
In the following situations, we use past continuous tense –
1. Interrupted Action in Past: While I was doing my homework, a bird flew in through the window and interrupted me.
2. A Series of Interrupted Actions in Past: While I was doing my homework, the dog barked at a stranger passing by outside and the doorbell rang. I had to get up and answer the door.
3. A Long Action in the Past: While I was watching TV, my mother called me for dinner.
4. Characteristic Actions that were happening during another more noticeable action or event in the past: While I was watching TV, there was an earthquake.
5. A Habit in the Past: I used to watch TV every day after school when I was a child.
6. Speculation about the Past: If she had told me earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and energy doing all this work for nothing!
7. A Point in time in the past or background information about the past: They met at college when they were students.
Here are some examples of past continuous tense:
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative |
| He was eating. | He wasn’t eating. | Was he eating? |
| I was eating. | I wasn’t eating. | Was I eating? |
| It was eating. | It wasn’t eating. | Was it eating? |
| She was eating. | She wasn’t eating. | Was she eating? |
| They were eating. | They weren’t eating. | Were they eating? |
| We were eating. | We weren’t eating. | Were we eating? |
| You were eating. | You weren’t eating. | Were you eating? |
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