The past continuous tense, also known as past progressive, is used to talk about continuing or incomplete actions in the past. This tense describes something that was in progress at a specific moment in time.
Signal words that can help you identify the past continuous tense are as long as and while.
Conjugation
Rule 1: To conjugate the past continuous tense, we use use the past tense form of the auxiliary verb be and the main verb in its -ing form.
Here is an overview of the conjugation of the past continuous tense in positive, negative and interrogative sentences:
| Person | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / he / she / it | I was saying | He was not saying | Was she saying? |
| you / we / they | You were saying | We were not saying | Were they saying? |
Usage
Rule 2: We can use the past continuous tense to describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past.
Rule 3: We can use the past continuous tense to describe two actions that were taking place at the same time.
Rule 4: We can use the past continuous tense to describe a past action that was interrupted by a second past action.
Quiz
1/4Complete the sentence. We ___ (watch) a film when our parents came home.