The
Past Countinuous Tense
The sentence uses
the past countinuous tense. It is used :
1. To talk about an action which was in
progress at a certain time in the past.
|
Subject
|
Past Countinuous (was /
were + V-ing +……)
|
Adverb of Time
|
|
-
Ira
-
The students
|
Was a writing a magazine
Were having a biology class
|
At about
8 p.m last night at about
11 a.m. yesterday
|
2.
To
talk about two actions that occurred at the same time. One action began earlier
and was in progress when the other action occurred.
Example
:
The
children were having lunch when their mother came home.
Meaning:
The
children had lunch, then their mother came home. After that, the children
probably still had lunch.
|
While/When
|
Subject 1
|
Past Continuous
|
Subject 2
|
Simple Past
|
|
While
|
I
|
Was sleeping
|
The phone
|
Rang
|
|
When
|
Mr. Jono
|
Was having a meeting
|
A blast sound
|
Was heard
|
|
Subject 1
|
Past Continnuous
|
When
|
Subject 2
|
Simple Past
|
|
We
|
Were listening to the CD
|
When
|
Someone
|
Knocked on the door
|
|
The teacher
|
Was explaining the lesson
|
When
|
The blackout
|
Happened
|
We can use
when/while with the past continuous tense, but we can only use when before the
simple past Tense.
3. To talk about two long actions that were in
progress simultaneously.
Example
:
Meaning
:
Studying
needs much time, cooking also needs much time. They are considered as in the
same length of time.
|
While
|
Subject 1
|
Past Continuous
|
Subject 2
|
Past Continuous
|
|
While
|
Mrs.
Joe
|
Was cleaning the garden
|
Mr. Joe
|
Was plowing his field
|
|
While
|
The Children
|
Where practicing singing
|
The teeneegers
|
Were preparing for a drama
|








