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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? |
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