Exercises to learn English

Past continuous

FORM

Affirmative form:

You have to use the auxiliary verb be + V-ing to form a continuous tense. Therefore, if you want to form the past continuous of a verb, you have to put the auxiliary verb be in the past and the main verb in present participle (V-ing).

John was cooking when we arrived.

Negative form:

The usual structure of a negative statement is: S + Aux. verb + not ... Therefore, all you have to do in the negative form is put "not" after the auxiliary verb be:

It was not raining when I arrived.

Interrogative form:

The usual structure of a question in English is: ...Aux. verb + S...? Therefore, all you have to do in the interrogative form is put the auxiliary be before the subject.

Was it raining when you arrived?

USES

The past continuous tense is used mainly:

in descriptions:

It was a very dark night. It was raining heavily, the wind was blowing...

together with a time expression to express an action which began before that time and probably continued after it:

At 8 o'clock Paul was having breakfast.

We can use a verb in the simple past tense instead of a time expression: the action in the past continuous started before the action in the simple past and probably continued after it:

Henry was watering the garden when it started raining. ----------X- (--------- = water) (X = start raining)
We do not know when the action expressed by "water" started or finished. We only know that this action was in progress when it started raining. Although we presume that it stopped after it started raining.