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.

Tenses in English indicate when an action occurs—past, present, or future. They help clarify the timing of events, making communication clear and precise.

Tenses

Grammatical Tense in English

This detailed lesson explores the Past Continuous Tense in English, featuring examples and a quiz to help test your knowledge.

"Past Continuous" tense in English Grammar

This lesson dives into the Past Continuous with concise explanations and practical examples to enhance your understanding.

What Is the "Past Progressive" tense in English Grammar?

Past Continuous

"Past Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

Tenses are a set of grammatical characteristics that are used in languages to show time. Here you will learn all about how to use tenses in English language.

What are tenses in the English Grammar?

In this lesson, you will learn all the grammatical features of the Present simple tense in English and get familiar with its uses.

Present Simple

"Present Simple" Tense in English Grammar

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

Past Simple

"Past Simple" Tense in English Grammar

The future simple tense talks about actions that will happen later. In this lesson, you will learn to talk about the future in English using 'will.'

Future Simple

"Future Simple" in English Grammar

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.

Present Continuous

"Present Continuous" Tense in English grammar

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.

Future Continuous

"Future Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

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

"Present Perfect" Tense in English Grammar

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.

Present Perfect Continuous

"Present Perfect Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

This tense is an advance tense and we use it to talk about the past in a lot of interesting ways, and you’ll see what they are. So are you ready? Let’s start.

Past Perfect

"Past Perfect" Tense in English Grammar

This tense is an advanced tense, but it’s not hard to learn. This tense will allow you to talk about things that happened in the past in a more interesting way.

Past Perfect Continuous

"Past Perfect Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

The future perfect tense is an advanced tense; it will allow you to speak about the future in a really interesting way that may not exist in your own language.

Future Perfect

"Future Perfect" Tense in English Grammar

This is one of the most advanced tenses in the English language. So, congratulation on reaching this level. Let's start to learn this tense.

Future Perfect Continuous

"Future Perfect Continuous" Tense in English Grammar

Anything after now is the future, and in English, we have many ways and tenses to talk about the future. Some are more basic and some are more advanced.

Future with 'Going to'

Future with 'Going to' in English Grammar

There are times that we are narrating a story and we want to talk about past plans that did not happen. In this case, we use past with going to.

Past with 'Going to'

Past with 'Going to' in English Grammar

When you talk, the verbs should agree with the orders of events. That's why We will learn how and when to use the present tense in this lesson.

Talking about the Present

"Talking about the Present" in the English Grammar

What if we want to narrate something that happened in the past? In this case, we will need to know the past tense.

Talking about the Past

"Talking about the Past" in the English Grammar

Sometimes we need to talk about our plans, wishes, & arrangements that have not happened yet and are related to the future.

Talking about the Future

"Talking about the Future" in the English Grammar

Verbs give information either about the subject or the state of the actions. As a result, aspects are formed. Let us learn more about them.

Aspects

What Are verb Aspects in English?

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=V2hhdCBJcyBQYXN0IENvbnRpbnVvdXMgVGVuc2U_&hash=5e419a6fb2b0602b3ec91282cfb61632171acc94&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=V2hhdCBJcyBQYXN0IENvbnRpbnVvdXMgVGVuc2U_&hash=5e419a6fb2b0602b3ec91282cfb61632171acc94&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

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**.

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=U3RydWN0dXJl&hash=1c315962d80f9d0adfbd50706d7258bdebcde99d&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=U3RydWN0dXJl&hash=1c315962d80f9d0adfbd50706d7258bdebcde99d&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

Structure

We form the **past continuous** [tense](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/75/tenses) with 'was/were + -ing form of the [verb](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/496/verbs).'

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=SGUgd2FzIHJlYWRpbmcu&hash=c72c458529073505bd9082368a00e238aa94ed48&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=SGUgd2FzIHJlYWRpbmcu&hash=c72c458529073505bd9082368a00e238aa94ed48&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=V2Ugd2VyZSBzdHVkeWluZy4&hash=ad2d67768b8043b757d72149a2cb92235d2abb51&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=V2Ugd2VyZSBzdHVkeWluZy4&hash=ad2d67768b8043b757d72149a2cb92235d2abb51&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=UXVlc3Rpb24gRm9ybQ&hash=5911d3bb3bfd449934b05bea167b19a4eb868402&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=UXVlc3Rpb24gRm9ybQ&hash=5911d3bb3bfd449934b05bea167b19a4eb868402&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

Question Form

To make a [question](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/270/questions/intermediate) in the **past continuous tense**, use **was** for singular subjects  and **were** for plural subjects at the __beginning__ of the [sentence](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/696/sentences/intermediate). For example:

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=V2FzIHNoZSBsb29raW5nPw&hash=c2d7654607fde046472d306dd142c3d3e4312ff4&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=V2FzIHNoZSBsb29raW5nPw&hash=c2d7654607fde046472d306dd142c3d3e4312ff4&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=V2VyZSB5b3UgY29taW5nPw&hash=24563bf9915cc3d86e08913e55d4188f334952be&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=V2VyZSB5b3UgY29taW5nPw&hash=24563bf9915cc3d86e08913e55d4188f334952be&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=TmVnYXRpdmUgRm9ybQ&hash=87faf38b876131a9a37f22e6a31438a8dfdc86f7&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=TmVnYXRpdmUgRm9ybQ&hash=87faf38b876131a9a37f22e6a31438a8dfdc86f7&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

Negative Form

The [negative](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/665/negation/intermediate) form of this tense is created by adding **'[not](https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/937/not)'** to **'was'** and '**were'**. For example:

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=SSB3YXMgbm90IHJlYWRpbmcu&hash=61479ff6e51c5d698160d0500ad602316f3ab7b2&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=SSB3YXMgbm90IHJlYWRpbmcu&hash=61479ff6e51c5d698160d0500ad602316f3ab7b2&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=V2Ugd2VyZSBub3Qga2lzc2luZy4&hash=f460f1fb5fa2aa477ea7326e92309d5d3ef72311&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=V2Ugd2VyZSBub3Qga2lzc2luZy4&hash=f460f1fb5fa2aa477ea7326e92309d5d3ef72311&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=VXNl&hash=d6b61982048ca7a2baff484b2ba443b3807f4376&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=VXNl&hash=d6b61982048ca7a2baff484b2ba443b3807f4376&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

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

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=SSB3YXMgbWFraW5nIGRpbm5lciB3aGVuIHNoZSBjYWxsZWQu&hash=dafdeb3a5de7aef99e5e238d66e491bbbe41a976&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=SSB3YXMgbWFraW5nIGRpbm5lciB3aGVuIHNoZSBjYWxsZWQu&hash=dafdeb3a5de7aef99e5e238d66e491bbbe41a976&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/transcribe?text=SSB3YXMgZWF0aW5nIGRpbm5lciBhdCA5IG8nY2xvY2su&hash=02f6247e51992009c3b9847b7e4a0ff7f87e50b7&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

https://tts.langeek.co/read?text=SSB3YXMgZWF0aW5nIGRpbm5lciBhdCA5IG8nY2xvY2su&hash=02f6247e51992009c3b9847b7e4a0ff7f87e50b7&lang=en&cache-only=0&driver=chatgpt

Langeek

Past Continuous For Intermediate learners