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Past continuous

Past continuous. I was doing. We use the past continuous tense to describe a past action over a period of time. Q) "What were they doing yesterday?" A) "They were working all day. At 10:15 they were playing tennis.

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Past continuous

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  1. Past continuous I was doing

  2. We use the past continuous tense to describe a past action over a period of time Q) "What were they doing yesterday?" A) "They were working all day.

  3. At 10:15 they were playing tennis. We use the past continuous 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. This time last year I was living in Brasil.

  4. 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 watching television when the phone rang. Past simple (complete action) • I walked home after the party last night. • Ann watched televison a lot when she was ill last year

  5. Past simple and past continuous are used together when something happened in the middle of something else • Tom burned his hand when he was cooking dinner. • I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grasss and reading a book. • While I was working in the garden, I hurt my back.

  6. But we use the past simple to say that one thing happened after another: • I was walking along the road when I saw Dave,so I stopped and we had a 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)

  7. There are some verbs (for example, know/want/believe) that are not 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.

  8. We also use past continuous to make POLITE REQUESTS: I was hoping we could discuss a pay raise. I was wondering if you had time to see me.

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