{"id":74131,"date":"2020-04-19T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=74131"},"modified":"2020-04-19T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T11:18:08","slug":"past-continuous-tense-form-and-uses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/past-continuous-tense-form-and-uses\/","title":{"rendered":"Past Continuous Tense Form And Uses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Form<\/h3>\n

Affirmative<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was writing.
\nShe was writing.
\nYou were writing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Negative<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was not writing.
\nShe was not writing.
\nYou were not writing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was I writing?
\nWas she writing?
\nWere you writing?
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Uses of past continuous tense<\/h2>\n

To talk about past events in progress<\/span><\/h3>\n

The past continuous\/progressive<\/b>\u00a0is used to talk about events that were in progress around a particular past time.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u2018What\u00a0were\u00a0<\/b>you\u00a0doing<\/b>\u00a0yesterday evening?\u2019<\/li>\n
  • \u2018I\u00a0was watching<\/b>\u00a0TV.\u2019<\/li>\n
  • At 7 am this morning, I\u00a0was doing\u00a0<\/b>my homework.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The past continuous\u00a0<\/b>is also used to stress that an activity was in progress at every moment during a period of time.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • I\u00a0was resting\u00a0<\/b>all day yesterday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Past continuous and simple past<\/h3>\n

      We often use\u00a0the past continuous<\/b>\u00a0together with\u00a0a simple past tense<\/b>. The past progressive refers to a longer background action or situation; the simple past refers to a shorter action or event that happened in the middle of the longer action.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • I\u00a0was having\u00a0<\/b>a bath when the telephone\u00a0rang.<\/b><\/li>\n
      • As I\u00a0was driving\u00a0<\/b>down the street, I\u00a0saw<\/b>\u00a0Peter.<\/li>\n
      • They\u00a0were sleeping\u00a0<\/b>when the thieves\u00a0broke\u00a0<\/b>in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Past progressive and simple past: differences<\/h3>\n

        Duration<\/h5>\n

        The past progressive<\/b>\u00a0is used to talk about temporary actions or situations. For longer, more permanent situations we use the simple past.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • It happened while I\u00a0was living<\/b>\u00a0in Mumbai last year.<\/li>\n
        • I\u00a0lived<\/b>\u00a0in Chennai for ten years while I was a child.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          Repeated actions<\/h5>\n

          We do not normally use\u00a0the past progressive<\/b>\u00a0to talk about repeated or habitual past actions.\u00a0The simple past<\/b>\u00a0is used with this meaning.<\/p>\n

            \n
          • I\u00a0phoned<\/b>\u00a0him four times. (NOT I was phoning four times.)<\/li>\n
          • I\u00a0rang<\/b>\u00a0the bell seven times. (NOT I was ringing the bell seven times.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            However, the past progressive can be used with\u00a0always, continually\u00a0<\/b>and similar words to talk about things that happened repeatedly and unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

              \n
            • He\u00a0was always bringing\u00a0<\/b>us nice gifts.<\/li>\n
            • I didn\u2019t like him – he\u00a0was continually making\u00a0<\/b>troubles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Form Affirmative I was writing. She was writing. You were writing. Negative I was not writing. She was not writing. You were not writing. Question Was I writing? Was she writing? Were you writing?...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[2700,420,2712,715],"class_list":["post-74131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-past-continuous","tag-past-continuous-tense","tag-past-progressive","tag-simple-past"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74132,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74131\/revisions\/74132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}