Past Continuous Tense

What is the Past Continuous Tense?

The past continuous, or past progressive, tense describes an
action or situation that began in the past and is still going on
in the present time.
The past continuous is easily formed by pairing up the verb to
be’ with a verb ending in -ed’ instead of -ing’ (e.g. was
talking).
The second section below has some great examples of how to
use the past continuous tense in actual conversation. After
studying those samples, continue reading to the end for some
practice choosing the correct form of this verb tense to
complete a sentence. When reading a book or article, it is
often a great idea to keep a dictionary or thesaurus at hand,
especially when encountering unfamiliar or irregular verbs.
Past Continuous Tense Structure
The Past Continuous is used to describe actions that began in the
past and often continued for a short period of time after the action
started.

The structure of the Past Continuous Tense is:

Was/were + V-ing (Present Participle)

Example:

At three o’clock yesterday, I was working in the garden.

Examples of the Past Continuous Tense

1. My kids were playing basketball together for hours yesterday.
2. My daughter was planning to join the school band but chose the choir
instead.
3. I was talking to my neighbor when she told me about the fire that
started across the street.
4. Our school was holding a pep rally when the fire alarm went off.
5. I was not giving to charity last year, but then I received a raise and
started contributing to the local animal shelter.
6. While I was getting ready for bed, I turned on the news to see what had
happened during the day.
7. My team was holding an offsite lunch n learn but discontinued it when
people stopped showing up.
8. My brother was dropping me off at school every morning so I didn’t
have to wait in the cold for the bus.
9. I was hanging more and more elaborate Christmas lights every year
until I realized I couldn’t do anything bigger this year so I stopped.
10.My friend was sleeping over every Friday for three months during the
Summer but then we had to stop when school started.
Time Expressions Used with the Past Progressive Tense
• When
• While
• Always
• Constantly
• At that time
• In those days
• All day
• All evening
• For hours…