By Syahruzzaky
Introduction
In today’s post, we are discussing past continuous tense. Likewise present continuous it talks about action that is on progress, but happened in the past. To understand this tense you had better have the preliminary information about simple past and present continuous.
Read the sentences carefully.
- Today she’s wearing a skirt, but yesterday she was wearing trousers.
- It was raining, so we didn’t go out.
- I woke up early yesterday. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
- I started work at 9 o’clock and finished at 4.30. At 2.30 I was working.
- ‘What did he say?’ ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t listening.’
- They didn’t see me. They weren’t looking in my direction.
- What were you doing at 11.30 yesterday? Were you working?
- Were you watching television when I phoned you?
- What were you doing at 10 o’clock last night?
- We were walking home when I met Dan.
- Kelly fell asleep while she was reading.
- Matt phoned while we were having dinner.
What is Past Continuous for?
The sentences talk about actions that were happening in the past. When we say, “yesterday she was wearing trousers” it means that yesterday, in the same time she’s getting dressed today, she was wearing trousers.
Past Continuous vs. Simple Past
The idea that differentiates past continuous and simple past is that the former emphasizes the action that was happening in the middle of the past. Meanwhile, the latter shows that the action has completed already. See the difference:
We were walking home when I met Dan. (in the middle of walking home)
We walked home after the party last night. (=all the way, completely).
Practically, past continuous usually comes hand in hand with simple past. See the example in the last four sentences:
We were walking home when I met Dan.
Something happened (I met Dan) in the middle of something else (we were walking home).
See other examples:
Kelly fell asleep while she was reading.
Matt phoned while we were having dinner.
The Form
To construct past continuous tense in the positive/affirmative form we can use “to be” in the past form (“was” and “were”) and -ing. The idea can be seen from the name of this tense. Past indicates the past event, and continuous shows that something is on progress. This kind of event is usually associated with -ing. See the examples in the first four sentences:
Today she’s wearing a skirt, but yesterday she was wearing trousers.
It was raining, so we didn’t go out.
I woke up early yesterday. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
I started work at 9 o’clock and finished at 4.30. At 2.30 I was working.
The negative form is simply constructed by adding “not” after the “to-be”. See the examples:
‘What did he say?’ ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t listening.’
They didn’t see me. They weren’t looking in my direction.
The interrogative form is formed by putting the “to-be” in the beginning of the sentence or after the “Wh- questions”. See the examples:
What were you doing at 11.30 yesterday? Were you working?
Were you watching television when I phoned you?
What were you doing at 10 o’clock last night?
Conclusion
- Past continuous talks about actions that were happening in the past. It indicates that the situation started before this time, but had not finished.
- The difference between past continuous and simple past is that the former emphasizes the action that was happening in the middle of the past. Meanwhile, the latter shows that the action has completed already.
- Past continuous usually comes hand in hand with simple past when expressing the idea that something happened in the middle of something else.
- To construct past continuous we can see the table:
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