Tenses

Concept: Past Continuous Tense

Definition

• The past continuous tense is used to talk about an ongoing activity in the past.
• The past continuous tense refers to actions or states that were continuous which means they happened over some time.

Example:

Difference between the Simple Past Tense and the Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous tense is different from the simple past tense. In the simple past tense, the action starts and ends in the past itself. In the past continuous, the action described was in progress in the past.

Example:

Simple Past Tense

a)I completed my class at 7 ‘o clock.

(This means that action started on the same day and finished at 7 pm in the evening.)

Past Continuous Tense

I was attending my class at 7 o clock.

(This means that ‘I’ was in the middle of attending my class but started doing it and continued attending my class after 7.)

Several ways of using the Past Continuous Tense

1. We also use past continuous to say that an action or state was in progress at a specific time.

Example:


2. It can be used to describe an activity in the past that was interrupted by another event.

Example:


3. We use the past continuous tense to express the two actions or states that happened at the same time.

Example:

The pattern of the Past Continuous Tense

In the past continuous tense, there is a subject, an auxiliary verb which includes ‘was’ or ‘were’, and adding -ing to the main verb. If the subject is singular, we use ‘was’, and for plural subjects, we use ‘were’.

Example:

Common Mistakes

Don’t forget to use the auxiliary verbs ‘was’ and ‘were’ in the sentence in the past continuous tense.

Incorrect and correct usage:

• Ravi was doing his homework.
• Ravi doing his homework.