The document provides information about using the past continuous tense in English grammar: 1) The past continuous tense is used to describe actions that were ongoing or in progress at a specific time in the past. 2) It is often used with time expressions like "while" or "when" to indicate that one action was happening simultaneously with another action in the past. 3) The past continuous and past simple tenses can be used together, with the past continuous showing an ongoing action that was interrupted by a one-time action in the past simple.

1. Past Continuous

2. Past continuous tense The farmer was working at 6 o’clock yesterday evening

3. I was play ing You We They were He She It was

4. Past continuous tense was I play ing ? were you we they was he she it I Was not Wasn’t play ing You We They were not weren’t He She It was not wasn’t I n t e r r o g a t i v e N e g a t i v e

5. Uses of the past continuous We use the past continuous tense to describe a past action over a period of time What were they doing yesterday at 8 o’clock? They were working all day.

6. This time yesterday the hairdresser was working We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time.

7. P ast simple and past continuous are used together when something happened in the middle of something else The policeman broke his ankle while he was running after the dog

8. The past simple and the past continuous do not mean exactly the same. Compare: When Mary arrived, we were having dinner. This means that we already started dinner before Mary arrived. When Mary arrived, we had dinner. This means that Mary arrived first and then we had dinner.

9. Time expressions: While, as, when. While the band was playing a mobile phone rang.

10. What were Mike and Louise doing yesterday?

11. When the teacher arrived at school…

15. Practice: Do you have a good memory? Are you a good witness? Directions: Look at the following picture for one minute. Try to remember as many details as you can, but don’t write anything.

16. Only one minute… Ready, go ….

17. One minute…

18. What do you remember? How many people were there?

19. Where were the people?

20. What was hanging from the ceiling?

21. What was the bank robber holding?

22. What was the bank robber wearing?