Past Continuous for intermediate learners

continuous tenses past continuous past tenses

The past continuous tense is used quite often in English, so let’s understand exactly when to use it and how to use it. Are you ready? Let's begin.

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"Past Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

What Is Past Continuous Tense?

The past continuous tense is used to indicate a continuing action or a situation that was happening at some point in the past.

Structure

We form the past continuous tense with 'was/were + -ing form of the verb.'

He was reading.

We were studying.

Question Form

To make a question in the past continuous tense, use was for singular subjects and were for plural subjects at the beginning of the sentence. For example:

Was she looking?

Were you coming?

Negative Form

The negative form of this tense is created by adding 'not' to 'was' and 'were'. For example:

I was not reading.

We were not kissing.

Using Past Continuous to Talk about Ongoing Actions in the Past

Use

We use the past continuous tense to talk about something that was happening continuously in the past.

I was making dinner when she called.

I was eating dinner at 9 o'clock.

Past Simple

Past simple tense is one of the most exciting and important tenses in English. We often use it to talk about what happened before.

Future Simple

The best way to predict the future is to create it. In this lesson, you will learn to talk about the future in English using 'will.'

Present Continuous

The present continuous tense is a basic tense. It is usually one of the first tenses you start to learn when you first start studying English.

Future Continuous

The future continuous tense is used by native English speakers quite often and this is your chance to learn and understand this tense so you can start using it.

Present Perfect

Present perfect is a useful tense that talks about an action that happened in an indefinite time in the past. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.

Present Perfect Continuous

The present perfect continuous tense is a useful tense in English grammar. Why? Because it connects the present and the past. Let's see how.

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