Past Continuous

Teacher Sandra M.Magnani

 Forming the past continuous tense

 The past continuous tense (also called the

past progressive tense) is commonly used
in English for actions which were going on
(had not finished) at a particular time in
the past.

 I was sleeping .
 They were talking during the class .
 Tony was eating a big sandwich .
 To be(past)was/were+verb+ing
 Affirmative
I was doing
You were doing
He/she/it was doing
We were doing
You were doing (plural)
They were doing
 NEGATIVE:
 I wasn’t doing
 You weren’t doing
 He wasn’t doing
 She wasn’t doing
 It weren’t doing
 We weren’t doing
 You weren’t doing
 They weren’t doing

I / He / She / It - wasn’t or was not

You / We / They - weren’t or were not
 QUESTIONS
was/were+subject+verb+ing
 Was I doing?
 Were you doing?
 Was he/she/it doing?
 Were we doing?
 Were you doing?
 Were they doing?

 Let’s remember :
 He /She / It = was
 We /you /They = were
 Functions and examples
 We use the past continuous to say that an
action was in progress at a particular time
in the past.

 I was having dinner at 6pm last night

 What were you doing at midnight last night?

 Bob was sleeping at 10 pm last Sunday

 We use the past continuous to say that an
action was in progress at every moment
during a period of time

 You were working all day yesterday, weren't

you?

 I was playing soccer all day yesterday.

 We use the past continuous together
with the past simple. The past
continuous refers to a "longer" or
"background" action that was in
progress; the past simple refers to a
shorter action that interrupted the
longer action, or happened in the
middle of it.
 He was walking to work when he met John.

 She was eating when the phone rang.

 The baby was sleeping when he arrived

 While I was working in the garden, I heard a woman

scream.

 While he was watching tv his wife went out

 Important points
 We do not normally use some verbs in the
past continuous tense, because these
verbs are not normally action verbs. These
verbs include: believe, belong, depend,
hate, know, like, love, mean, need, prefer,
realise, suppose, want, understand.

 They knew each other very well.

They were knowing each other very well. x

Você encontra esse material no blog:

gramatingles@blogspot.com