PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
RD
We use Past Continuous Tense for:
- activities or actions that were interrupted by another
shorter action
e.g. I was driving home when I saw Jenn.
- temporary habits that happened in the past
e.g. Dana was always losing her sunglasses.
- activities or actions that lasted for a while and we want
to emphasise the duration
e.g. She was cleaning the house all day yesterday.
- expressing a background for a story
e.g. The wind was blowing and the rain was falling.
NOTE: We DO NOT use Past Continuous Tense
with stative verbs, but Past Simple Tense
e.g. When I finally got to the hotel, I really
needed a hot bath. >> was needing
We form Past Continuous Tense with:
Past simple of the verb „TO BE“ >> WAS/WERE + VERB-ING
e.g. It was raining every day that fall.
They were training every weekend at the time.
When adding -ing to the base form of the verb, the same
rules apply as for the Present Continuous Tense:
- if a verb ends with an -e, you remove the -e before
adding -ing
e.g. take + ing > taking , drive + ing > driving
- if a verb ends in a vowel + a consonant, the consonant is
usually doubled before adding -ing
e.g. swim + ing > swimming, cut + ing > cutting
- if the base verb ends with -ie, change the -ie to -y
e.g. lie + ing > lying, die + ing > dying, tie + ing > tying
Negative form
WAS / WERE + NOT >> WASN`T / WEREN`T + verb-ing
e .g. They weren`t secretly talking on the phone.
She wasn`t sleeping very well.
Interrogative form
WAS/WERE + subject + VERB-ING
e.g. Was Colin taking his medications? Yes, he was.
Where were they living? In Italy.
Signal words:
for overlapping actions > while
for interrupted actions > when
for past habits > always, forever, constantly, at the/that time
to emphasise duration of activities or actions > for hours, all
(day, weekend, month, afternoon...)
1. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form
a) Patty and Jonah ____________________ (decore) the
living room all day yesterday.
b) I __________________ (not/do) anything wrong!
c) She ___________________ (wear) her raincoat
because it _________________ (rain) heavily outside.
d) Peter __________________ (read) his favourite book
while the children ___________________ (play) in the
garden.
e) They ____________________ (not/sleep) very well on
their camping trip.
f) We _____________________ (take) some pictures
when suddenly we heard a loud bang.
g) I suddenly fell asleep while I ____________________
(watch) TV.
h) The police ____________________ (chase) fugitives
for hours.
i) They ________________________ (always/leave) their
dirty socks all over the apartment.
j) Jill said that her opponent____________________
(not/play) fair during the competition.
2. Complete the questions with the correct form of the
verb in brackets
a) What _______________________ (Vernon/do) last
night when I called him?
b) _______________________ (my niece/eat) a lot of
candy all day yesterday?
c) Why ______________________ (you/cry) the other
day?
d) Why ______________________ (Sam/avoid) you all
last summer?
e) ________________________ (they/work) on their tree
house when Ally came by?
f) _______________________ (you/travel) a lot at that
time?
g) What ______________________ (they/celebrate)
when I arrived?
h) _______________________ (Peter/listen) to music
when she called?
i) What ________________________ (Matt/think) about
last night? He looked worried.
j) _______________________ (Dominic/do) his
homework when his mother came back from work?
k) Why _______________________ (they/not/talk) to
each other?