PAST CONTINUOUS

I. STRUCTURE

The past continuous is formed as follows:

TO BE (in the past tense) + present participle of verb

Examples:

I was studying		We were studying
You were studying		You were studying
He/She/It was studying		They were studying

II. APPLICATION

Use the PAST CONTINUOUS to express a scenario in the past. Usually the past continuous is found in two-clause sentences, where one clause expresses a scenario, and the other expresses a specific action in the past.

Example: The bomb exploded while the people were eating dinner.

Note that the order of the clauses is not important. We could also say:

The people were eating dinner when the bomb exploded.

The important thing is that the specific past action takes past tense, while the scenario is expressed in past continuous.

More examples:

-I was watching (scenario) television when the doorbell rang (specific action).

-When I arrived (specific action) in Chicago, it was raining (scenario).

-The burglar entered (specific action) the house while the family was sleeping (scenario).

-At 2:45, I was reading (scenario) the newspaper. Then, I noticed (specific action) a bright flash in the sky...

-I caught (specific action) malaria when I was travelling (scenario) in India.

Remember that there are certain verbs not generally used in continous tenses (see p. 13). For these verbs, use the simple past tense for past scenarios.

Example: A doctor in New Delhi took care (specific action) of me while I was sick.

Also note that two consecutive past actions do not require past continuous.

Example: When I finished my dinner, I turned on the T.V.