Past Tense Continuous

Form:

Affirmative: S + was / were + V 1st form+ing Negative: S + wasnt/was not/werent/were not + V 1st
form+ing

Interrogative: Was / Were + S + V 1st form+ing Negative Interrogative: Wasnt/was not/Werent/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