THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

 

The Past Continuous Tense describes an action that was going on at a particular time in the past.

STRUCTURE:

 Subject + was / were + V4 + Rest of the sentence 

MAKING NEGATIVE SENTENCES
Subject	Helping Verb	Adverb	Main Verb (V4)	Rest of the sentence
I	was	not	going	to school.
We	was	not	going	to school.
You	were	not	going	to school.
He	was	not	going	to school.
She	was	not	going	to school.
It	was	not	going	to school.
Raju	was	not	going	to school.
They	were	not	going	to school.
Raju and Rani	were	not	going	to school.

 

MAKING POSITIVE INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
Helping Verb	Subject	Main Verb (V4)	Rest of the sentence
Was	I	going	to school?
Were	we	going	to school?
Were	you	going	to school?
Was	he	going	to school?
Was	she	going	to school?
Was	it	going	to school?
Was	Raju	going	to school?
Were	they	going	to school?
Were	Raju and Rani	going	to school?

MAKING NEGATIVE INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
Helping Verb	Subject	Adverb	Main Verb (V4)	Rest of the sentence
Was	I	not	going	to school?
Were	we	not	going	to school?
Were	you	not	going	to school?
Was	he	not	going	to school?
Was	she	not	going	to school?
Was	it	not	going	to school?
Was	Raju	not	going	to school?
Were	they	not	going	to school?
Were	Raju and Rani	not	going	to school?

USAGE:

You should mention the time of action to express in the Past Continuous Tense to understand it properly:

Eg:

I was reading a book at 8pm last night.

What were you doing when he arrived?

Raju had finished his work as it was getting dark.

Two months ago, my friend was struggling hard to complete his work. ( before or after a particular time)

However, we can understand the sentence without mentioning its time of happening in some cases:

Eg:

My head was spinning. (the length of time is not clear)

We were doing our homework for half an hour. ( the length of time is clear)

For persistence habits in the past we use the sentences with always:

Eg:

She was always fighting with the boys in the class.

They were always carrying water bottles to quench their thirst.

Raju was always complaining about his brother.

We use  the Past Continuous Tense to show development, growth and other changes in its time occurrence:

Eg:

I expected that her business was growing.

We never use state verbs with the Past Continuous Tense:

Eg:

This property was belonging to me.✖

This property belonged to me.✔

I was seeing a great church in front of my house.✖

I saw a great church in front of my house.✔

It was containing a large amount of liquid gas.✖

It contained a large amount of liquid gas.✔

When two past actions were happening over the same period the Past Continuous Tense is used:

Eg:

She was cleaning up the kitchen while I was watching the tv.

The student was sleeping while the teacher was teaching the lesson.

Raju was doing his job while I was searching for a job.

While we were trying our luck, Rani was planning for a business.

He was counting the notes and looking at the gate.

For describing the background of a story:

Eg:

The moon was shining brightly and the birds were going to their nests to sleep as an owl came out of the cave. The people nearby the villagers were returning from their work, but some villagers were still busy gossiping about village affairs.

Often, the Past Continuous action is interrupted by another action in the past. This other action should be in the Simple Past Tense. In other words, the past continuous tense is used for long action and the past simple tense is used for a short action. We usually join these two tenses with when (short action) or while ( long action ). These long and short actions are relative:

Eg:

While I was going to market, my friend met me at a shop. ( before or after another event happened)

Raju was driving a car when an unknown man dashed his car. (interrupted by another action)

For repeated actions when mentioning the number of times in the past, we use the Simple Past Tense; without the number of times still, we can express it in the past continuous tense:

Eg:

We were visiting Hyderabad four times last year.✖

We visited Hyderabad four times last year. ( with number of times) ✔

Raju was completing his assignments three times last week.✖

Raju completed his assignments three times last week.  ( with number of times) ✔

The children were quarrelling all the time when I reached the classroom.  ( without the number of times) 

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