1.2-1.3-2.1-2.2 PAST CONTINUOUS_Form & Use

PAST CONTINUOUS

A.    FORM

[was/were + present participle]

Examples:

·       You were studying when she called.

·       Were you studying when she called?

·       You were not studying when she called.

Complete 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?

B.     USE

1 Interrupted Action in the Past [ WHEN / WHILE ]

Use the Past Continuous to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted. The interruption is usually a shorter action in the Simple Past.

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.

when + short action (simple past tense) : the telephone rang
while + long action (past continuous tense): I was sleeping

When the telephone rang, I was sleeping. 
While I was sleeping, the telephone rang. 

Examples

Examples:

·       I was watching TV when she called.

·       When the phone rang, she was writing a letter.

·       While we were having the picnic, it started to rain.

·       What were you doing when the earthquake started?

·       I was listening to my iPod, so I didn't hear the fire alarm.

·       You were not listening to me when I told you to turn the oven off.

·       While John was sleeping last night, someone stole his car.

·       Sammy was waiting for us when we got off the plane.

·       While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off.

·       A: What were you doing when you broke your leg?
B: I was snowboarding.

USE 2 Action in Progress at a Specific Time in the Past:

Use the past continuous to talk about a long action in progress at a definite and specific time in the past.

Examples:

·       Last night at 6 PM, I was eating dinner.

·       At midnight, we were still driving through the desert.

·       Yesterday at this time, I was sitting at my desk at work.

USE 3 Parallel Actions (happening at the same time)

When you use the Past Continuous with two actions in the same sentence, it expresses the idea that both actions were happening at the same time. The actions are parallel.

Examples:

·       I was studying while he was making dinner.

·       While Ellen was reading, Tim was watching television.

·       Were you listening while he was talking?

·       I wasn't paying attention while I was writing the letter, so I made several mistakes.

·       What were you doing while you were waiting?

·       Thomas wasn't working, and I wasn't working either.

       ·     They were eating dinner, discussing their plans, and having a good time.