Using the Past Continuous

A past point in time I was playing

football with my
Someone broke into the school and stole all our grammar friend Becks.
books. The police suspect that the crime was committed by Honest
some very enthusiastic English students. What were you
Governor.
doing at 8 o’clock last night?

NOTE: We use the past continuous to say that an action was

in progress at a particular time in the past. The action had
already started at this time, but had not finished.

Questions
While we were talking to the police they mentioned a very
strange case that they were working on last year.
Apparently they found a body in the middle of a field. The
Was he body was lying face down and the limbs were pointing out at
travelling very strange angles.

through
Can you guess what the poor man was doing immediately
time? before his death?

A past period
I didn’t sleep
COMPLETE THE SENTENCES USING THE PAST CONTINUOUS: last night
because the
I didn’t get any sleep last night because……………… damn cats

…………………………………….……….….all day yesterday. were

fighting.
……………………………………..……..for the whole morning.
……………………………….……………..during the afternoon.
……………………………………………..………….…..last August.

NOTE: We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at every
moment during a period of time / to say that an action in the past was temporary.
Interrupted past actions

I was finishing COMPLETE THE SENTENCES:

my homework
.…………………………………………………..and suddenly an angel appeared.
when a dog
came and ate I was watching the television when …………………… …………………………
it. ……………………………………………..while he was playing computer games.
While …………………………………….. I saw…………………………………...

NOTE: 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.

Repeated actions in the past My mum was

always saying
COMPLETE THE SENTENCES USING THE PAST that if I ate too
CONTINUOUS: many carrots I’d
turn into one.
When I was young I ……….……………………………………..……….…
My friends………………………………………………………………………….
My parents …………………………………………………………….…………
My grandmother …………………………………………………..………...
My teacher ………………………………………………………………………

NOTE: We use the past continuous with words such as always to talk about things
that happened repeatedly.

Verbs that aren’t used

We do not normally use some verbs in the past continuous tense, because they 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.
 Trinity 6: Using the Past Continuous in Conversation
Useful lexis
I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that…..
I watching TV the other day and …….
Actually, I was reading about this last month.
In fact, I was reading an article on fashion yesterday.
My friends and I were always getting into trouble at school.
While I was travelling in Spain I bought a fan and some castanets.
I was thinking about joining a gym but I don’t know if I’ll have time to go.

Have you had any bad travel experiences?

Once, when was I was visiting a friend in England our plane was delayed by 7 hours.

Do you travel a lot?

Yes. I like to escape from Guadalajara whenever I have time. Actually I was planning a trip to Italy with my
friend the other day.

Where will you travel to next?

If I have enough money I’ll hire a house in France this summer. I was looking at prices on the internet this
morning.

Did you receive any pocket money when you were young?
My parents only gave me £2 per week. I was always begging them for more.

Is fashion important to you?

No it isn’t. I was watching a programme the other day and the presenter was wearing some fashionable
green trousers. They looked ridiculous.

Do you ever read fashion magazines?

Yes I read Marie Clair and Vogue. In fact I was reading Vogue this morning and I saw a good article on
summer clothes.

Did you were any crazy fashions when you were young?
Yes I was always colouring my hair and wearing ripped jeans to look like my favourite pop star.

Did you ever break the rules at your school?

Yes I was always getting in trouble at school. For example once when I was doing an experiment in science I
burned my friend’s hair.

Do you ever work out?

I never go to the gym but I go running with my dog. Actually I was running with him this morning.

How can people be healthier?

We were talking about this in class the other day. I think you have to do regular exercise. You also need to
have a healthy diet.

Is it possible to learn a language on-line?

I was doing some English exercise on line last month. They’re useful to practice grammar rules structures
but you need a teacher to correct your pronunciation.
Key
Exercise 1: The man was parachuting but his parachute didn’t open.