The past continuous

Form of the Past continuous

Was / were + verb (ing)

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I was playing He was playing She was playing It was playing We were playing You were playing They were playing	I was not playing He was not playing She was not playing It was not playing We were not playing You were not playing They were not playing	Was I playing? Was he playing? Was she playing? Was it playing? Were we playing? Were you playing? Were they playing?

Notice :

was not = wasn’t

were not = weren’t

We use the Past continuous :

Example :

A: What were you doing yesterday at 19h30?

B: yesterday at 19h30 I was doing my exercises

For a past action which continued for some time and whose exact limits are not known.

Example : He was driving so fast.

The past continuous

We use the past continuous with the simple past to show that the action of the continuous started before the action of the simple past and continued after it.

Example :

We were watching TV when the bell rang.

The past continuous

Example:

While / as we were studying English, other students were studying French.

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