Past Continuous Tense (Definition, Structure, Use)

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-II Past Now Examples: - I was doing my homework when suddenly it started to rain heavily. - What song was she singing when she was on stage? - I advised her but she wasnt listening.

Compare the past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did): Past continuous (in the middle of an action)
- I was talking to my lecturer when Ahmad called me. (= in the middle of talking) - Sarah was sleeping when the phone rang.

Past simple (complete action)

- I walked home after attending the extra class last night. (= all the way, completely) - Ann drank a lot of water because yesterday was very hot.

We often use the past simple and the past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else:
- Tomok hurt his hand when he was ironing the clothes - I saw you at the shopping complex and you were busy choosing some sport shoes. - While I was touring in China, I had an accident where I broke my wrist.

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 I arrived home, my family were sleeping. (= My family already slept when I arrived home) - When Shahir arrived at the restaurant, we had dinner. (= First Shahir 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 Azizi wanted to go home. (Not was wanting)