The past continuous is one of the twelve verb tenses that exist in English. It can be a bit confusing to understand for students, so it should be approached after learning the past simple and present continuous tenses.

In this post we will learn the past continuous at level II, so the explanation is in English and the examples shown have an intermediate difficulty.

Uses of the past continuous

We use the past continuous for:

1. An action or event in the past that overlaps with another, more recent yet still in the past action/event.

The kitten Pinenut was playing when his big brother Thyme came to watch him.
Paul and William were watching a TV series, but the energy was cut.
I was playing in a baseball league when I met your grandmother.

2. To emphasize that an action or event lasted for a specific or indeterminate amount of time.

I was working on my art all day when I was younger.
Jefferson was reading all night after getting the new book in the series.
They were dating for a while before they were forced to split up.

Note: For this implementation of the past continuous, temporal expressions like “all day”, “for hours” or “for a while” are used.

3. To refer to temporal habits or situations that happened more than was expected in the past, but don’t happen as much anymore.

Your niece Janine was always leaving the lights on whenever she left a room.
The Roman Republic was forever engaging in warfare against the Gauls.
Godzilla was fighting constantly against other giant monsters.

Note: For this implementation of the past continuous we often make use of expressions like “constantly”, “all the time” or “always”.

Structure of the past continuous

Affirmative

Subject + auxilary verb ‘to be’ in past tense + verb with –ing + rest of the sentence

She was walking down the corridor when she saw her ex-boyfriend.
Sally was holding a flower when she had the strange premonition.
The heroes and villains were fighting but they were interrupted by the police.

Negative sentences

Subject + auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in past tense + not + verb with –ing + rest of the sentence

She wasn’t walking down the corridor when she saw her ex-boyfriend.
Sally was not holding a flower when she had the strange premonition.
The heroes and villains weren’t fighting but they were interrupted by the police.

Interrogative sentences

Auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in past tense + subject + verb with –ing + rest of the sentence

Was she walking down the corridor when she saw her ex-boyfriend?
Was Sally holding a flower when she had the strange premonition?
Were the heroes and villains fighting but then were interrupted by the police?

Past continuous - Level II