Past Continuous | past continuous tense example
ThePastContinuoustenseisanimportanttenseinEnglish.Weuseittosaywhatwewereinthemiddleofdoingataparticularmomentinthepast.InthislessonwelookatthestructureandtheuseofthePastContinuoustense,followedbyaquiztocheckyourunderstanding.Notethatcontinuoustensesarealsocalledprogressivetenses.SothePastContinuoustenseissometimescalledthePastProgressivetense.HowdowemakethePastContinuoustense?Thestructureofthepastcontinuoustenseis:subject+auxiliarybe+mainverbconjugatedinPastSimple was,werepresentparticipleTh...
The Past Continuous tense is an important tense in English. We use it to say what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.
In this lesson we look at the structure and the use of the Past Continuous tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding.
Note that continuous tenses are also called progressive tenses. So the Past Continuous tense is sometimes called the Past Progressive tense.
How do we make the Past Continuous tense?The structure of the past continuous tense is:
subject + auxiliary be + main verb conjugated in Past Simple was, were present participleThe auxiliary verb (be) is conjugated in the Past Simple: was, were
The main verb is invariable in present participle form: -ing
For negative sentences we insert not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.
For question sentences, we exchange the subject and the auxiliary verb.
Look at these example sentences with the Past Contin...