Past continuous exercise 1 Use the verbs in brackets to complete sentences.
Past continuous exercise 2 What was Jane doing at these times?
Past continuous exercise 3 Complete the dialogue 'Romance at the Swimming Pool'.
Past continuous exercise 4 Make positive and negative questions.
English grammar PDF All PDF grammar rules on this website.
We make the past continuous tense with the past tense of the verb to be (was, were) and the present participle (-ing form).
Positive statement: I was sleeping. You were sleeping.
Negative statement: I was not listening (I wasn't listening), You were not listening (You weren't listening.)
Question: Were you crying? Was he crying?
Negative question: Were you not running? (Weren't you running?) Was he not running? (Wasn't he running?)
We use this tense for activities or situations that were not completed at a point in the past.
Completed (past simple):
I repaired my bike yesterday. (I finished my work.)
Incomplete (past continuous):
I was repairing my bike yesterday. (I did not finish my work.)
Completed (past simple):
When I heard the doorbell, I switched off the TV. (First I heard the doorbell and then I switched off the TV.)
Incomplete (past continuous):
When I heard the door bell, I was switching off the TV. (The doorbell started to ring when I was switching off the TV.)
Completed (past simple):
We had dinner at seven o'clock. (We began to eat at seven o'clock.)
Incomplete (past continuous):
We were having dinner at seven o'clock. (We started before and finished after seven o'clock.)
Past continuous vs. past simple Compare the typical use of the simple and continuous forms.