Past continuous

6 Unit

Past continuous (I was doing)

Study this example situation:

Yesterday Karen and Jim played tennis. They began at 10 o'clock and finished at 11.30.
So, at 10.30 they were playing tennis.

They were playing = 'they were in the middle of playing. They had not finished playing.

Was/were -ing is the past continuous:

plaing
doing
working

I/he/she/it
we/you/they

was
were

etc.

We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but had not finished:

I started doing

I was doing

I fineshed doing

• This time last year I was living in Brazil.

• What were you doing at 10 o'clock last night?

• I waved to her but she wasn't looking.

Compare the past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did):

Past continuous (in the middle of an action)

• I was walking home when I met Dave. (= in the middle of walking home)

• Ann was watching television when the phone rang.

Past simple (complete action)

• I walked home after the party last night. (= all the way, completely)

• Ann watched television a lot when she was ill last year. . .

We often use the past simple and the past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else:

• Tom burnt his hand when he was cooking the dinner.

• I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grass and reading a book.

• While I was working in the garden, I hurt my back.

But we use the past simple to say that one thing happened after another:

• I was walking along the road when I saw Dave. So I stopped and we had a chat. Compare:

• When Karen arrived, we were having

dinner. (= We had already started dinner before Karen arrived.)

When Karen arrived, we had dinner. (= First Karen arrived and then we had dinner.)

There are some verbs (for example, know/want/believe) that are not normally used in the continuous (see Unit 4A):

• We were good friends. We knew each other well. (not 'we were knowing')

• I was enjoying the party but Chris wanted to go home. (not 'was wanting')