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The Past Continuous in the English language explained with exercises.
Past continuous tense explanation and exercises worksheet with answers pdf.
Study this example situation:
Yesterday Vanessa and Marcus played tennis. They started at 17 o’clock and finished at 18.00.
So, at 17.30 they were playing tennis.
They were playing = they were in the middle of playing. They had not finished playing.
Was/were -ing is the past continuous:
l/he/she/it | was | playing
we/you/they | were | playing
I was doing something= I was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time, but had not finished:
Some examples:
This time last year I was living in Turkey.
What were you doing at 12 o’clock last night?
I waved to Sarah, but she wasn’t looking.
Compare the past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did):
Past continuous (in the middle of an action)
-
I was walking home when I met Judy. (in the middle of walking home)
-
James was watching TV when we arrived.
Past simple (complete action)
-
I walked home after the party last night. (= all the way, completely)
-
James watched television a lot when he was ill last year.
We often use the past simple and the past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else:
Jake phoned while we were having lunch.
It was raining when I got up.
I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grass and reading a book.
I hurt my back while I was working in the garden.
But we use the past simple to say that one thing happened after another:
I was walking along the road when I saw Dan. So I stopped, and we had a chat.
Compare:
When James arrived, we were having dinner. (= we had already started
before she arrived)
When James arrived, we had dinner. (= James arrived, and then we had dinner)
Some verbs (for example, know and want) are not normally used in the continuous.
We were good friends. We knew each other well. (not We were knowing)
I was enjoying the party, but Ken wanted to go home. (not was wanting)
Complete the passage. Use the past simple or past continuous of the verbs in brackets. Listen and check.
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