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Past Continuous
The Past Continuous
is used for actions or situations that happened
over a period of time. For example:
- We were playing tennis with some friends
from work.
- The sun was shining this morning.
The Past Continuous
is made with the past form of to be
and the -ing form.
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Singular
I was walking
You were walking
He was walking
She was walking
It was walking
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Plural
We were walking
You were walking
They were
walking
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Usage
The Past Continuous
is used for actions which are taking progress
in the past. We are in the middle of these actions,
they have started but not yet finished. For
example:
- We were playing tennis yesterday afternoon.
- What were you doing? I was having lunch with
my sister.
The Past Continuous
and Past Simple are often used together to show
that one situation happened during another one.
The Past Continuous is used for a background
event that has already started, and the Past
Simple is used to introduce a new event. For
example:
- I was walking in the park when it started
to rain. - "Walking in the park" is
a background situation, and "it started
to rain" is the new event of interest.
- It was raining so I ran back home.
- While I was running, the rain stopped.
- It wasn't raining, so I walked in the park
again.
Note that if we want
to show that one situation happened after another
one, we usually use the Past Simple. For example:
- Yesterday I walked in the park, it started
to rain, I ran back home, and the rain stopped.
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Click below for exercises
using the Past Continuous.
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