How to Use the Past Continuous Tense in English

The Past Continuous, also called the Past Progressive, is an English tense used to describe actions in progress at a particular time, focusing on duration, simultaneous, and temporary activities. 

This tense is widely used in narratives because it helps provide additional details to the story, such as emphasizing the duration or making clear that events happened at the same time.

Let’s look into the specifics to grasp this grammar perfectly.

Past Continuous tense examples:

The Past Continuous structure is formed by using   was  and   were , taking the subject into account + the verb with -ing ending.

Glance at some Past Continuous sentences:

We choose Past Continuous when we want to talk about actions that were taking place yesterday at 6 a.m., at that moment, or, simply, temporary situations that were ongoing in the past at a specified time. Also, it is used with actions happening at the same time and interrupted events.

Past Continuous usage examples:

Past Continuous tense markers:

We saw many examples of Past Continuous tense usage in positive sentences. Now, let’s look at the negative and question forms, which have their finer points.

Past Continuous questions

The Past Continuous formula for question sentences is simple. You need to swap the subjects and auxiliary word’ places.

Yes/No questions 

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Wh-questions

Let’s examine some instances:

The negative form of the Past Continuous

To create negation in the Past Continuous, you need to put not after was and were, then add the -ing ending to the main verb.

The Past Continuous tense structure for negative sentences:

Examples:

Speaking more naturally and less formally requires us to use short forms where we put was not and were not together. As a result, we get wasn’t and weren’t.

Past Continuous examples of negative sentences:

Because this is a more complex tense, it is easy to misspell or forget about some points. Below, we describe some typical errors that often occur when studying this tense.

Using Past Continuous with stative verbs

The verbs of perception, thinking, and emotions, such as like, love, want, need, and feel, aren’t typically used in progressive tenses.

Choosing the wrong form of the verb to be

Speaking was instead of were or even opting for am, is, or are in the Past Continuous tense sentences is another regular mistake.

Misusing time indicators

Selecting wrong tense markers, which are not used with the tense or don’t fit the case.

Now that you know the Past Continuous uses, it will be much easier to tell engaging stories with background information, provide more details when explaining something, and understand others. Continue polishing your skills with Koto English!