All sections
Foundations
The verb system
Describing and connecting
- 09 Adjectives and adverbs
- 10 Prepositions
- 11 Conjunctions
- 12 Building longer sentences
- 13 Punctuation and capital letters
Words and sounds
Practice and progress
05.06Core
Past Continuous
An action that was in progress at a moment in the past.
The structure
Positive
Subject + was / were + V-ing
Negative
Subject + was / were + not + V-ing
Question
Was / Were + subject + V-ing ?
When you use it
- An action in progress at a stated past time: At eight o'clock I was having dinner.
- A long action interrupted by a short one: the long one takes the continuous, the short one the past simple: I was walking home when it started to rain.
- Two actions happening together: She was cooking while he was studying.
- Setting the scene in a story: The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
Words that signal this tense
at 8 o'clockwhilewhenall morningat that time
Examples
- I was watching television at nine o'clock.میں نو بجے ٹی وی دیکھ رہا تھا۔
- She was cooking when I arrived.جب میں پہنچا تو وہ کھانا پکا رہی تھی۔
- They were not sleeping at that time.وہ اُس وقت سو نہیں رہے تھے۔
- Were you working last night?کیا تم کل رات کام کر رہے تھے؟
- While I was reading, my brother was playing.جب میں پڑھ رہا تھا، میرا بھائی کھیل رہا تھا۔
The mistake almost everyone makes
When I was reaching home, my mother was calling me.
When I reached home, my mother was calling me.
The short, complete action takes the past simple. Only the longer background action takes was/were + -ing.