(A) Form :
Affirmative(Declarative) : (I, He, She, It + was + v-ing) or (You, We, They + were + v-ing)
I was studying.
He was playing.
You were reading.
They were sleeping.
Negative form : (I, He, She, It + wasn’t(not) + v-ing) or (You, We, They + weren’t(not) + v-ing)
I wasn’t (not) studying.
He wasn’t (not) playing.
You weren’t (not) reading.
They weren’t (not) sleeping.
Question form
Was + He, She, It + v-ing?
Was he working?
Were + you, we, they + v-ing?
Were they working?
Short answers
- Yes, he, she, it + was.
you, we, they were.
- No, he, she, it + wasn’t.
you, we, they + weren’t.
Use :
1. We use the past continuous tense to talk about an activity in progress at a particular time in the past. See below picture to understand it.
2. We use the simple past to talk about a complete action(long or short). We use past continuous for actions which were not complete at a past time.
- It was raining on Monday so we didn’t play football.
3. We often use the past continuous and the past simple together with while.
Past continuous : longer action or situation
Past simple : complete shorter action that happened during the longer action.
- While I was having dinner, the phone rang.
- While I was talking to my brother, Bill came in.