Past Continuous Grammar Chart

Actions in progress

We use the Past Continuous to talk about actions that were in progress (not finished) at a specific moment in the past.

Examples:

• What were you doing at 9 yesterday? I was relaxing.
• When I saw them yesterday, they were playing tennis together.

The specific moment in the past can be described by a time expression  (at 9 a.m., at midday, at lunchtime, all morning, all day, etc.)

Examples:

• They were jogging at 7 in the morning.
• At midday, we were still working.

Past Continuous (long action) is often used in combination with Past Simple (short action). 

Examples:

• They were communicating when I saw them.
• When I arrived, they were still talking about it.

Describing a scene

We often use the past continuous at the beginning of a story to describe the situation. It is common for essays, books etc.

Examples:

• It was getting dark, and I was walking fast. Suddenly I heard some noise.
• The sun was shining, and the birds were singing, so I felt so good.

Key ideas

You need to remember that not all verbs in English can be used in Continuous forms. You must REMEMBER these words, they are non-action/stative verbs that describe some abstract things – feelings, emotions, perceptions etc.

The most widely-used words you must remember are:

want, love, like, remember, forget, understand

Examples:

I wanted to help him. (I was wanting to help him.)

She didn’t understand the material. (She wasn’t understanding the material.)

Download the list of verbs 

Past Continuous Practice

Past Continuous simple tasks

Exercise 1 positive

Exercise 2 negative

Exercise 3 positive & negative

Exercise 4 yes/no questions

Exercise 5 WH questions

Exercise 6 mixed

Exercise 7 mixed 2

Exercise 8 mixed 3

Test 1

Test 2

Speaking practice

1. What were you doing at 8 o’clock yesterday evening?

2. What were you doing before you came to this class today?

3. Were you working or relaxing at 7 p.m. last night?

4. What were you doing while you were waiting for your last bus or taxi?

5. What were you eating or drinking at lunchtime yesterday?

6. What were you doing when your alarm rang this morning?

7. Were you watching anything interesting on TV recently? What was it?

8. What were you thinking about while you were walking yesterday?

9. What were your colleagues/family members doing when you left home today?

10. What were you doing at this time last Sunday?

11. Were you listening to music while you were working recently?

12. What were you doing when someone called you last time?

13. What were you doing while you were waiting for something recently?