English Grammar - Past Continuous

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past continuous

form

Affirmative
I was doing
You were doing
He/she/it was doing
We were doing
You were doing (plural)
They were doing

Negative
I was not doing
You were not doing
He/she/it was not doing
We were not doing
You were not doing
They were not doing

Question
Was I doing?
Were you doing?
Was he/she/it doing?
Were we doing?
Were you doing?
Were they doing?

functions & examples

We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at a particular time in the past. The action had already started at this time, but had not finished.
I was having dinner at 6pm last night.
What were you doing at midnight last night?

We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at every moment during a period of time.
You were working all day yesterday, weren't you?
I was playing football all day yesterday.

We use the past continuous together with the past simple. The past continuous refers to a "longer" or "background" action that was in progress; the past simple refers to a shorter action that interrupted the longer action, or happened in the middle of it.
He was walking to work when he met John.
She was eating when the phone rang.
While I was working in the garden, I heard a woman scream.

We use the past continuous to say that an action in the past was temporary.
You were working in the Sales Department last month, weren't you?
They were living in Paris for a year.

We use the past continuous with words such as always to talk about things that happened repeatedly.
Grandpa was always telling us funny stories about his life and cracking jokes.

important points

We do not normally use some verbs in the past continuous tense, because these verbs are not normally action verbs. These verbs include: believe, belong, depend, hate, know, like, love, mean, need, prefer, realise, suppose, want, understand.
They knew each other very well. P
They were knowing each other very well. x

See also Past simple | Past perfect | Present continuous

teaching past continuous

"When I'm presenting past continuous for the first time, I usually do a lot of drilling to compare it to the present continuous. The obvious one to start with is

Teacher: "John, what are you doing now?"
Student: "I'm studying English."
Teacher: "And what were you doing at 7 o'clock this morning?"
Student: "I was sleeping."

With a lot of drilling and repeating, I find students generally understand the meaning (action in progress at a specific time in the past). Mix up the drills with open and closed questions, first, second, third person and so on. For this you can have students answer questions about other students, about yourself, or you could use flashcards. I usually follow this up with a fairly controlled practice activity like a gap fill exercise."
Josie

"Well, you know that teaching a grammar point can turn into a frustrating situation when your students are at a low level; so I would advise you to use funny games in which rules are taught inductively and you lower affective filter so they might feel more connected to the class and not to the rules."
Pete

"Show your student a short clip with lots of action and less dialogue (e.g. Mr Bean) - it is better if there are two or more people doing things at the same time.

1. Ask them to write down what they saw. (when viewing)

2. Ask them to write sentences from the viewpoint of one of the characters, e.g. assume you are Mr.Bean

I was reading a book when the man opposite burst out laughing.
I was covering my ears with socks when the officer came to check my ticket.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZpL02A1EHM"
Calvin

"Teaching past continuous can be done by using visual or a video teaching system. Students see some actions through the media and it is emphasized that the actions happened in the past. Particular time is important in order to specify the current subject. It can be also done by using pictures with time displayed so students can recognize the actions."
Mail

"It may be difficult for students to understand what we mean by past continuous by showing them videos with actions after we tell them that the action happened in the past. I usually give them a case in which there is more than one character in addition to the inspector. The inspector asks the characters questions like:

I: What were you doing at 1:00 am last night?
C: I was watching my favourite soap opera
Gul

"We just do lots of funny actions and then sit together in a circle and discuss what we were doing. It's a lot of fun for beginner kids... they luv it!"
Anonymous

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