Past Continuous
Actions that were in progress at a moment in the past.
How do we form it?
was / were + verb + -ing. I / he / she / it → was; you / we / they → were.
I was reading at 8 o'clock.
They were playing football.
She wasn't sleeping.
Interrupted actions: when and while
The longer action → Past Continuous; the short action that interrupts it → Past Simple.
I was cooking when the phone rang.
While we were walking, it started to rain.
Tip: while + Past Continuous (during), when + Past Simple (the moment it happened).
Sample quiz questions
- At 9 p.m. yesterday I ___ TV.
- They ___ dinner when I arrived.
- I was walking home when I ___ (see) an accident.
- The sentence “While I was sleeping, the alarm rang.” is grammatically correct.
Take the interactive quiz for this lesson (6 questions)
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