The document discusses the past continuous tense in English. It explains the form of the past continuous tense in positive, negative, and yes/no question sentences. It then provides four uses of the past continuous tense: 1) to describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past, 2) to describe an action that was ongoing over a period of time in the past, 3) to describe a longer ongoing action that was interrupted by a shorter action in simple past tense, 4) to describe a temporary or non-permanent action in the past. It concludes by contrasting the past continuous and past simple tenses.

1. Past Continuous Tense

2. Form of Past Continuous Tense: Positive Sentence books. reading was He, She, It happily. dancing were You, We, They to music. listening was I modifier. main verb (V +ing ) + “ BE” + Subject +

3. Form of Past Continuous Tense: Negative Sentence wasn't books. reading not was He, She, It weren't happily. dancing not were You, We, They wasn't to music. listening not was I modifier. main verb (V +ing ) + NOT + “ BE” + Subject +

4. Form of Past Continuous Tense: Yes-No Question lazy? being he, she, it Was World’s Cup last night? watching you, we, they Were to music? listening I Was modifier ? main verb (V +ing ) + Subject + “ BE” +

5. Form of Past Continuous Tense: Wh-Question at 11 o’clock last night? doing he, she, it was Who World’s Cup last night? watching you, we, they were Where to when the phone rang? talking I was Who modifier ? main verb (V+ing) + Subject + “ BE” + Question word

6. Use of Past Continuous Tense 1. We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at a specific time in the past. The action had already started at this time, but had not finished. At 5pm yesterday, it was raining . I was having dinner at 6pm last night. Last night at 11 PM , my sister and I (we) were watching TV. At midnight , we were still driving through the desert. What were you doing at midnight last night?

7. Use of Past Continuous Tense 2. We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at every moment during a period of time. Yesterday she was sitting at her desk at work all day . You were working all day yesterday. Yesterday they were not playing football at 9am . What were you doing at 10pm last night? Jimmy was working at 10pm last night. working working working working working working 8:00am 4 : 00pm 12:00pm

8. Use of Past Continuous Tense 3. We use the past continuous together with the past simple. The past continuous refers to a "longer" or "background" action that was in progress to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted; The past simple refers to a “ shorter” action that interrupted the longer action, or happened in the middle of it. John’s daughter was sleeping when he called her at 8pm. * Remember: this can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time!

9. Jimmy was taking a bath when the phone rang . A: What were you doing when you broke your leg? B: I was snowboarding .

10. Use of Past Continuous Tense 4. We use the past continuous to say that an action in the past was temporary . Sarah was waiting for her friend for 20 minutes yesterday. You were working in the Sales Department last month . They were living in Paris for a year.

11. Past Continuous Tense & Past Simple Tense We often use the past continuous tense with the simple past tense. We use the past continuous tense to express a long action . And we use the past simple tense to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action .

12. Past Continuous Tense & Past Simple Tense I was watching TV when Jim knocked the door. Long action = (watching TV), expressed with past continuous tense Short action = (knocked), expressed with simple past tense

13. ‘ when’ + short action (past simple tense) ‘while ’ + long action (past continuous tense) I was watching TV when Jim knocked the door . Jim knocked the door , I was watching TV While I was watching TV while Jim knocked the door I was watching TV , Jim knocked the door When Jim knocked the door. when I was watching TV