GRAMMAR & STRUCTURE
Past Continuous

Definition

The past continuous describes actions continuing in the past.

Example

Graham was sleeping this morning.

Explanation

Past continuous --

describes actions happening at a specific point in the past.
describes actions happening at the same time in the past.
describes actions that were happening when a second action (described using past simple) happened.
is not used with stative verbs, verbs with no action (stative verbs are: be, believe, belong, forget, have, hear, know, like, love, need, prefer, remember, see, seem, understand, or want).
has the structure was / were + verb -ing.
adds "not" between was / were and the verb + -ing to make a negative sentence.
uses was / were as auxiliary verbs to make questions.

Related Sections