The past continuous tense is used to describe actions that began in the past and often continued for a short period of time after the action started. This tense describes actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past. These actions are usually no longer happening at the time the sentence is being said or written.
The past continuous (also called past progressive) is a verb tense which is used to show that an ongoing past action was happening at a specific moment of interruption, or that two ongoing actions were happening at the same time. Read on for detailed descriptions, examples, and past continuous exercises.
Past Continuous Tense is used to describe some action that happened in the past and continued for some time. We use first form of verb+ing in this tense. Past Continuous Tense formed using was/were + present participle. One example of this tense is: I was playing cricket when she called me last night. The past continuous tense is “was play.” Questions are indicated by inverting the subject and was/were. Negatives are made with not
Simple: I was eating pizza
Question: Was I eating pizza?
Negative: I was not eating pizza
Example Sentences of Past Continuous Tense
Simple/positive sentences are made using the following order.
Sub + was/were + first form of verb + ing + object.
