past continuous
Hi, in today’s lesson we are going to be
learning about the past continuous in English.
Firstly, let’s look at the form:
In positive sentences we have
was or were + verb in the -ing form.
So you'd have: I was working, you were working, he/she/it was working, we were working
and they were working
In the negative we have: was/were + not + verb in the -ing form.
So that is, I wasn’t singing, you weren’t singing,
he/she/it wasn’t singing, we weren’t singing and they weren’t singing
and finally in questions we have: was/were + subject + verb in the -ing form.
So that would be: Was I waiting?
Were you waiting? Was he/she/it waiting? Were we waiting? Were they waiting?
So, moving on, when do we use the past continuous?
Firstly, for an activity beginning before a past action and continuing until or after it.
The action is usually in the past simple.
For example:
We did some reading while we were waiting at the doctor’s surgery.
Let’s look at that on a timeline.
So here is the timeline. This is now, this is the past.
and as you can see the past continuous, "we were waiting"
here represented by the wiggly line,
started before the action of “did some reading” and continues until after it.
or "When we were queuing for the theatre, we saw a famous actor."
Let’s look at that on a timeline.
So, here is now, this is the past. and as you can see here the past continuous,
represented by the wiggly line,
"We were queuing" begins before the action “we saw a famous actor” and continues after it.
OK, the past continuous is also used for two things happening at the same time.
So, here "He was buying a pizza and all the crowd was singing."
Here on the timeline, you can see the 2 actions,
represented by the wiggly lines,
happening at the same time.
Thirdly, we use the past continuous for repeated events, with a word like always or continually,
especially if the speaker is criticising the activity.
For example, "Your mother was always doing her work."
She did her work regularly and often,
and the speaker thinks that the mother worked too hard!
Finally, for unfulfilled plans, we also use the past continuous, with verbs like hope and plan.
So, for example, "I was hoping to find a new coat."
But I didn’t find one.
Also, remember state verbs are used in the past simple and not in the past continuous.
So, you would say, I didn’t know him and not I wasn’t knowing him.
OK so that’s it for today, I hope you feel more confident using the past continuous in English.
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past continuous