Contents
- Five minute guide
The key points if you’re short of time. - Past Continuous in detail
A more in-depth look at rules and usage of Past continuous.
Five Minute Guide to Past Continuous
Forming sentences with Past Continuous
- was/were + present participle (-ing form of the verb)
Using Past Continuous
- We use 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 this time yesterday?
- We use past continuous to say that an action was in progress at every moment during a period of time.
- You were working all morning, weren’t you?
- I was playing football all day yesterday.
- We use past continuous with past simple. Past continuous refers to a longer or background action that was in progress; 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 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 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.
Other rules and use of past continuous
- Some verbs are not normally used with past continuous because they are not action verbs, for example: believe, belong, depend, hate, know, like, love, mean, need, prefer, realise, suppose, want, understand.
- They knew each other very well – correct
- They were knowing each other very well – incorrect
Pronunciation
See the phonemic chart for IPA symbols used below.
- Was and were are usually reduced to their weak forms in affirmative sentences and questions.
- I was planning to do it: /wəz/
- What were they thinking? /wə/
Past Continuous in detail
How do we form Past Continuous?
We form past continuous with the past tense forms of the auxiliary verb “be” and the present participle form of the main verb. Let’s remind ourselves of the past tense forms of “be“:
| First person singular | I was |
|---|---|
| Second person singular | you were |
| Third person singular | he / she / it was |
| First person plural | we were |
| Second person plural | you were |
| Third person plural | they were |
To form the present participle we normally just add “ing” to the base form of the verb. There are some exceptions though – here they are:
| Verb | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Most verbs ending with consonant + “e” | take off the “e” | hoping; taking |
| Most verbs ending in consonant + vowel + consonant | double the last consonant | batting; referring; swimming |
| Verbs ending in consonant + vowel + consonant where the last consonant is “w”, “x” or “y” | don’t double the last consonant | blowing; flexing |
| Verbs ending in “ie” | change the “ie” to “y” | dying; lying |
| Verbs ending in “c” | add “k” | panicking |
Now that we know which form of the auxiliary verb “be” to use and we’ve reminded ourselves how to form the present participle, we’re ready to see some examples of past continuous sentences:
- I was sitting at my desk.
- They were playing with the dog.
- The computer was making a loud noise.
Past continuous – Questions
Let’s try and change our statements above into questions. With “yes/no” questions and object questions we have to invert the subject and the auxiliary verb. We already have an auxiliary verb (was/were) so we don’t need to add one.
- Was I sitting at my desk?
- Were they playing with the dog?
- What were you doing at your desk?
- How long were they playing with the dog?
With subject questions the word order stays the same, and just like with present continuous, the form of the auxiliary verb is always in the third person singular (was) because we don’t know whether the subject in the answer will be in the first, second or third person.
- Who was sitting at my desk?
- What was making a loud noise?
Past continuous – Negatives
We make negative sentences with the auxiliary verb “be” (was/were) and “not“, often contracted to wasn’t or weren’t.
- I wasn’t sitting at my desk.
They weren’t playing with the dog.
The computer wasn’t making a loud noise.
When do we use Past Continuous?
Past continuous is sometimes called past progressive. The word “progressive” suggests that something is in progress. Let’s have a look.
Past continuous – Events in progress at a particular time in the past
Have a look at this sentence:
- At 7 o’clock last night John was having dinner.
What can we say about the time that this action of “having dinner” started and finished? Well, let’s imagine that you phoned John at exactly 7 o’clock last night. He would have been in the process of having dinner. This means that his dinner started at some time before 7 o’clock (perhaps 6.30, perhaps 6.58), was still in progress at 7 o’clock, and therefore finished at some point after 7 o’clock.
Here’s another example:
- This time yesterday I was lying on a beach.
If you had been flying over the beach at exactly this time yesterday, you would have seen me lying there. This action was in progress at that specific time. Once again, it started at some point before (maybe an hour before, maybe 10 minutes before) and was not yet finished.
Now, if we compare these with sentences in the past simple, let’s see what happens:
- At 7 o’clock last night I had dinner.
- This time yesterday I lay on a beach.
What can we say now about the time these actions started and finished? Well, now the actions started at exactly 7 o’clock, or exactly this time yesterday – they weren’t already in progress at that time.
Past continuous – An action in progress interrupted by a shorter action in the past
Let’s look now at a sentence with two actions – one using past continuous and the other using past simple.
- The phone rang while I was eating dinner.
What’s happening here? Well, first we have an action in progress in the past (eating dinner). At some point in the middle of eating dinner the phone rang, interrupting the action of eating dinner. We use past continuous for the relatively longer action that was in progress, and past simple for the relatively shorter action which interrupts it. Now, we know that the action of eating dinner started at some point before the phone rang, but we don’t know whether or not it stopped at the moment the phone rang. It is possible that I stopped my dinner to answer the phone, or maybe I ignored it and carried on eating.
Here’s another example of one action interrupting another:
- He was walking home when he heard a loud scream.
The same thing happens here – the relatively short action of hearing a loud scream interrupts the longer action of walking home. Once again we know that “walking home” started at some point before the scream, but we don’t know if he continued walking home afterwards.
You’ll notice that we’ve used “while” in one of these sentences and “when” in the other. We normally use “while” (or “as“) in the past continuous clause and “when” in the past simple clause.
Past continuous – Two events in progress at the same time in the past
Sometimes one event doesn’t interrupt another, but instead happens in parallel to it. Have a look at this example:
- I was reading a book while my wife was watching a movie.
Here the two actions started at more or less the same time, were both in progress for some time, and then finished, again at more or less the same time. We can use “while” or “as” here just like before, but we could also use a coordinating conjunction like “and” or “but“:
- I was reading a book but my wife was watching a movie.
Past continuous – Repeated events in the past
We can use past continuous with words like “always” and “forever” to talk about things that happened repeatedly. We might have been irritated by this repeated action or we might remember it fondly:
- He was always biting his nails! (irritation)
- Grandpa was always telling us amazing stories about his life! (fond memory)
Past continuous – Setting the scene in a story
We commonly use past continuous to set the scene in a story, followed by past simple for the main events in the story:
- Batman was enjoying a relaxing day at home. It was raining hard and the wind was howling. Suddenly, he saw the bat signal in the sky and Robin ran into the room.
Past continuous and stative verbs
Just like with present continuous, we don’t normally use past continuous with stative verbs.
- Anna was knowing Jim well.
- I was liking cake.
There is no action involved with these verbs. Anna either knew Jim or she didn’t, and I either liked cake or I didn’t.
16 comments
Josie
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.
Calvin
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 started laughing.
I was covering my ears with socks when the officer came to check my ticket.
Video link removed by Admin – unavailable
Mark Maguire
The Mr Bean Video clip is unavailable. Do you have an alternative URL?
Keith Taylor
Search Youtube for “Mr Bean” – there are a lot of videos to choose from.
Hope that helps!
Martin
Try The Freeze Game…
1 Split the class into 2 teams.
2 Teams think of Present Continuous actions.
3 One team looks away – faces the window.
4 They count to 5 and then shout Freeze.
5 While they are counting the other team are doing the action and freeze when told to.
6 The team facing the window now turn and have 5 guesses to figure out what they were doing. For example:
They were jumping. They were skipping…
7 They are rewarded points on how quickly they get the answer, 5 points for correct on first guess, 4 points for second guess, etc.
My kids love this game and they use a lot of the target language and have fun doing it. I personally let them choose their own actions but for weak classes it might be helpful if you provide the actions.
Agnaldo
I always ask my students questions related to real and outstanding past events. For example:
“What were you doing when the Twin Towers were destroyed?”
Everybody, without a doubt, will remember what they were doing and get the meaning of the past continuous use.
Mari
I make up some cards that have present continuous and past simple sentences on them. For example, one card may say:
You are talking on the phone.
Another card may say:
You knocked on the door.
For this activity, I have 12 cards that have past simple sentences and 36 with present continuous (48 cards in total). I divide the cards into two piles. One pile contains all 12 of the past simple sentences plus 12 present continuous sentences. The other pile contains the rest of the 24 present continuous cards.
I then tell the students that they need to number their paper from 1-15. I call two students to come forward (student A and student B). Student A selects a card from one pile and student B from the other. The students act out their card and the rest of the class write down the sentence. For Example, let’s say student A draws the card:
You are cooking.
and student B draws the card
You called. (telephone)
Student A starts by acting out cooking dinner and at some point Student B interrupts the action student A is doing and the rest of the class would write on their paper:
When … was cooking dinner, … called him.
Obviously, student A and student B need to consult briefly beforehand so as to know who goes first, but they should do so without revealing anything to the rest of the class.
Larry
Drawing pictures on the board, in my opinion is a great way to show how this verb form works. Two pictures. For example: a man fishing, first action, then same picture with rain. You can label the first action which must have was/were + verb-ing. Second action past tense verbs. Try to start with regular verbs for the past tense action, or the second action. For example:
The man was fishing when it started to rain.
Effie
I draw a building with eight floors. I have flash cards with actions. Each student has to pick a card and put it on a floor. They say what the people in the flash cards are doing. Then I tell them that an earthquake happens. They have to say what the people were doing when the earthquake happened… highlight on board “was/were” and the “ing” form.
Sarinatash
I have a question. I would be happy if you answer me.
“She saw me fall in.”
In this sentence why we use fall instead of falling in? Can’t we use falling in here ? Please tell me why?
Trisha
Students will be reading a book. (Rewrite the sentence in past continuous tense)
Keith Taylor
Students were reading a book.
Sue
Hello everyone,
I’m trying to finish my TEFL methodology assignment using the past continuous interrupted and my tutor has asked me to ‘highlight the intonation change after the joining word.’ I’m not sure if I fully understand what he wants as surely it depends on which aspect is being stressed. Any help or ideas PLEASE! Thanks in advance.
Keith Taylor
Yes, I would have said it depends on that too. Can you post the sentence you’re using as an example?
Vishweshwar Pandey
Hello sir,
I have a question coming in my mind, if I may ask.
I have read in grammar books that past continuous and present continuous with adverbs such as always, continually etc are used to talk about repeated actions that we find annoying. Can they be used to talk about repeated actions that are not annoying? For example I can read above that grandpa was always telling me stories. – now this is not annoying but past continuous has been used which is not according to what grammar rules say. Kindly help me clear out my doubt.
Thank you.
Keith Taylor
Hi – Yes, we can use past continuous to talk about repeated actions that are not annoying, like in the example you mention. Hope that helps!