PAST CONTINUOUS 1. FORM past to be (was, were) + gerund (-ing)
I / he / she / it you / we / they
Affirmative I was speaking. You were speaking.
Negative I wasn’t speaking. You weren’t speaking.
Question Was I speaking? Were you speaking?
2. EXCEPTIONS IN SPELLING Exceptions in spelling when adding ing final e is dropped (but: ee is not changed) after a short, stressed vowel, the final consonant is doubled l as final consonant after a vowel is doubled (in British English) final ie becomes y
Example come – coming (but: agree – agreeing) sit – sitting travel – travelling lie – lying
3. USE OF THE PAST CONTINUOUS A. Action in progress at a specific time in the past. Example: I was watching television at 9 o'clock last night. B. Simultaneous actions in the past. Example: While she was preparing dinner, he was washing the dishes. 4. TIME EXPRESSION We use adverbs and expressions with past meaning, emphasising the exact time in the past: yesterday at 8 o’clock, on Wednsday afternoon… They naturally take the final position in the sentence, but they can be placed outside the sentence. That is, at the verb by beginning and separated from the sentences by a comma. 5. CONTRAST PAST CONTINUOUS – PAST SIMPLE A. We often use the past continuous tense and the past simple tense together. The past continuous is used to "set the scene", or provide background information. The past simple is used to speak about shorter actions that happened in the middle of the longer action, or that interrupted it. Examples: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang. I was watching television when the neighbours came to visit. B. We use the past continuous tense to speak about more temporary situations and actions, while we use the past simple to refer to more permanent ones. Examples: I was working in that bookshop for a few days last summer. She worked in the bookshop for 41 years. 6. CONNECTORS: They are placed between the sentences, or before the first sentence. In this case we need a comma to separate them. A. B.
while (In this part of the sentence we usually use Past Progressive.) Example: While we were watching TV, Andy was surfing the internet. when (In this part of the sentence we usually use Simple Past. The Past Progressive is used in the other part of the sentence.) Example: The ladies were talking when the accident happened.