The past continuous tense is an important tense in English. We use it to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but had not finished:
I started doing I was doing I finished doing
———I——————————————————————-I——————————–I—–
Past Now
Examples:
- This time last year I was living in Dublin.
- What were you doing at 10 o´clock last night?
- I waved to her but she wasn´t looking.
Compare the past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did):
Past continuous (in the middle of an action)
- I was walking home when I met Dave. (= in the middle of walking home)
- Ann was studying English when the phone rang in the school
Past simple (complete action)
- I walked home after the party last night (= all the way, completely)
- Ann learnt English a lot when she was ill last year.
We often use the past simple and the past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else:
- Tom burnt his hand when he was cooking the dinner.
- I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grass and reading a book.
- While I was working in Ireland, I hurt my back.
But we use the past simple to say that one thing happened after another:
- I was walking along the road when I saw my teacher. So I stopped and we had chat.
Compare:
- When Karen arrived, we were having dinner. (= We had already started dinner before Karen arrived.)
- When Karen arrived, we had dinner. (= First Karen arrived and then we had dinner.
There are some verbs (for example, know/want/believe) that are normally used in the continuous:
- We were good friends. We knew each other well. (not “we were knowing”)
- I was enjoying the party but Chris wanted to go home. (not “was wanting”)
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