Past Continuous

Past Continuous - Meester Gijs https://meestergijs.nl/unit/video-4/?id=2872

Past Continuous

 

 

The Past Contnuous is used to:

  • Talk about actions that happened in the past, while something else was happening
  • An action in the past took a while
  • Often combined with past simple (in one sentence)

 

The past Simple is constructed in a sentence:

  • was / were
  • verb + ing


 

The Past Continuous in a few examples:

  1. I was watching TV, when the power shut down. 
  2. They were working on their new album, when their manager quit
  3. The driver was not paying attention when he ignored a red light. 
  4. Charles was walking to school when it started to rain. 

 

You can use the Past Continuous in three different kinds of sentences:

 

Affirmative Negative Interrogative
They were watching, when the power went off.  They weren't watching when the power went off.  Were they watching when the power went off?
Jimmy was reading, when I arrived Jimmy wasn't reading when I arrived.

Was Jimmy reading when I arrived?

Both sisters were singing, when the music stopped. Both sisters weren't singing when the music stopped Were both sisters singing when the music stopped?
I was taking pictures when you performed. I wasn't taking pictures when you performed. Was I taking pictures when you performed?