English Subjects

THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

a. Use:

The Past Continuous tense is used to express continuous actions which took place in the past.
--> He was traveling in Europe last summer.
--> They were playing tennis yesterday afternoon.

The Past Continuous tense is frequently used to refer to an ongoing action which was taking place when something else occurred in the past.
--> I was washing the dishes when the telephone rang.
--> We were entertaining friends when the parcel arrived.

In the first example, the use of the Past Continuous tense indicates that the action of washing the dishes was taking place at the time when the telephone rang. In the second example, the use of the Past Continuous tense indicates that the action of entertaining friends was taking place at the time when the parcel arrived.

b. Formation:

The Past Continuous tense is formed from the Simple Past of the auxiliary to be, followed by the present participle of the verb. For example, the Past Continuous of the verb to work is conjugated as follows:

I was sleeping

you were sleeping

he was sleeping

she was sleeping

it was sleeping

we were sleeping

they were working

c. +/- /? Statements:

As is the case with other English tenses, questions and negative statements in the Past Continuous are formed using the auxiliary.

Questions are formed by placing the auxiliary before the subject. For example:

Affirmative Statement	Question
I was working.	Was I working?
They were working.	Were they working?

Negative statements are formed by placing the word not after the
auxiliary. For example:

Affirmative Statement	Negative Statement
I was working.	I was not working.
They were working.	They were not working.

In spoken English, the contractions wasn't and weren't are often used.

Negative questions are formed by placing the auxiliary before the subject, and the word not after the subject. However, when contractions are used, the contracted form of not immediately follows the auxiliary. The following are examples of negative questions with and without contractions:

Without Contractions	With Contractions
Was I not working?	Wasn't I working?
Were they not working?	Weren't they working?