Master it to do your best

In this lesson, we’ll review Past Continuous. You may definitely skip it if you’re sure you have enough knowledge of the tense. Finally, you might want to download the PDF files with the rules and exercises, which are at the end of this lesson.

Warm-up

Look at the picture. Can you explain it? Do you surf the net or text while driving?

Look at the driver’s answer. What verb tense is used there?

Read the following dialogue

Pay attention to the verbs in bold.

An old pirate was sitting in the bar. He was smoking a pipe and drinking a glass of rum. He was wearing an eye patch and he had a parrot on his shoulder and a wooden leg. Instead of his right hand he had a metal hook. A young sailor was chatting with the pirate and he asked him about his adventures at sea. 

‘So, how did you lose your leg?’, the young man asked the pirate.

‘Err! ,’ said the pirate, ‘You see, some sharks were circling the ship when I fell overboard. Luckily, my men pulled me back onto the ship before the sharks ate me completely, but one of the sharks got my leg.’

‘And how about the hook on your hand? How did you lose your hand?’

‘I was boarding a ship when another sailor cut off my hand with a sword.’

‘That’s amazing! What a life full of adventures!’ Said the young man. ‘And how about your eye? How did you lose that?’

‘I was eating a grapefruit when the juice went into my eye.’

‘But I don’t understand. How did you lose your eye from the grapefruit juice?’

‘Err!’ said the pirate, ‘it was my first day with the new hook.’

Source: https://www.esljokes.net/p7.htm

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Past Continuous

When we use the past continuous

We use it to talk about events which were in progress at a specific moment in the past or to emphasize the duration, e.g.: Yesterday evening, I was watching a football match. They were getting on board a plane at 5 p.m. (Specific time). She was studying hard for the whole last year. He was waiting for news for the whole week. (Duration).

Do you remember the formula of any continuous tense? Be + Ving, where Ving form is constant, and be changes according to tenses. So in Past Continuous, the formula is was/were + Ving: They were watching films all Sunday. My teacher was explaining a complicated issue for a half an hour.

Note 1. We use the past continuous with the past simple together. It often happens in stories to describe situations. In this case, the action in the past continuous is longer than the past simple and functions as background. At the same time, the action in the past simple is shorter than the one in the past continuous and it interrupts the longer (past continuous) action. See some examples: My mum entered the room while I was reading a magazine. We were going home when the rain started.

Note 2. To show that two actions were happening at the same time, use the past continuous for both of them and “while“: She was sunbathing while he was navigating the boat.

Positive, negative and questions

+ Positive sentneces	– Negative sentences	? Questions
subject + was/were + Ving	subject + wasn’t/weren’t (was not/were not) + Ving	Was/Were +subject Ving?
The children were playing at home. My son was sleeping during two hours.	The children were not (weren’t) studying. My son wasn’t reading.	Were you driving at 5 p.m.? Was the girl crossing the road?

NB:

Use only Past Simple with stative verbs, i.e.:

• feeling: hate, like, love, want; 
• senses: hear, see; 
• communication: agree, disagree, surprise; 
• thinking: believe, know, understand, etc.

Let’s see the details

In the following exercise, match the functions of tenses with the sentences.

PRACTICE

Past simple or past continuous, that is the question!

Complete the sentences in the next exercise with either past simple or past continuous.