Past Tense Continuous

 Form:

Affirmative: S + was / were + V 1st form+ing

Negative: S + wasn’t/was not/weren’t/were not + V 1st
form+ing
Interrogative: Was / Were + S + V 1st form+ing
Negative Interrogative: Wasn’t/was not/Weren’t/were
not + S + V 1st form+ing

Prep. univ. drd. Maria Paraschiv

Past Tense Continuous
 This tense is used to express:

Actions in progress (often interrupted by events):

e.g. : I was drinking my coffee at the time.
While I was opening the letter, the phone rang.
Background description in narrative
e.g.: I entered the office and looked around. Most people were
working at their desks, but Jane was staring out of the window
and pretending to write something at the same time.
Changing states
e.g. : The car was getting worse all the time. One of the headlights
was gradually falling off, and the engine was making more and
more funny noises.
Repeated actions (with a frequency adverb, this use is similar to the
use of present continuous to express annoyance)
e.g. :When Jane was at school, she was always losing things.

Prep. univ. drd. Maria Paraschiv