Self-Access Language Learning

Past Continuous Tense

Defintion:

Past continuous tense is a tense used to express an action act or event that is happening in the past.

Form of Present Perfect Continuous Tense:

The past continuous is easy to form. We use the past of the verb "to be" plus the verb in the ____ing form.

For example:

He was swimming in the river.

They were dancing when the police arrived.

Here is the verb write conjugated in the past continuous.

Past Continuous
Positive	Negative	Question
I was writing You were writing He was writing She was writing It was writing We were writing You were writing They were writing	I wasn't writing You weren't writing He wasn't writing She wasn't writing It wasn't writing We weren't writing You weren't writing They weren't writing	Was I writing? Were you writing? Was he writing? Was she writing? Was it writing? Were we writing? Were you writing? Were they writing?

The past continuous has two main uses:

To describe an event that was happening in the past at the time of another event. Often the first event interrupts the second event. In this situation, the event that started first is in the past continuous and the second event is in the past simple:

I was watching TV when the telephone rang.

He left university while he was finishing his final year.

We can also use the past continuous to give the background to a story. The events of this story are in the past simple.

He walked out of the bank with the gun. Police were standing surrounding the bank. A large crowd were watching events from the "Police" barricades. A helicopter was flying overhead. He raised his gun to fire at the police and..and..he woke up. It was 7am and time for work.

Mary was cutting the onions while I was cooking the beef.

Mary cut the onions while I cooked the beef.

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TASK

Look at these sentences! Then, identify which sentences are correct and which sentences are not. if you find the correct and uncorrect one, circle the word CORRECT and UNCORRECT!

1.      All the students were listening to the professor’s lecture very carefully

CORRECT / INCORRECT

2.      When the phone rang during Bill’s dinner, he was answering the phone.

CORRECT / INCORRECT

3.      It rained when we lest the apartment, so we took the umbrella.

CORRECT / INCORRECT

4.      Kathy was injuring her knee when we played tennis on Saturday.

CORRECT / INCORRECT

5.      What were you doing lasst night when I called you?

CORRECT / INCORRECT

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Write your answer in ms. word with the format 'Class_Name_Student Number', then submit it to the link below!

SUBMIT HERE!

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To make sure your answer, you can click the link below to see answer key.

Grammar for intermediate (answer key)