slug: past-continuous title: Past Continuous group: tenses order: 6 summary: An action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past. formula: S + was/were + V-ing

When to use it

Past continuous describes an action that was in progress at a particular moment in the past. It is often used alongside past simple to show that a longer background action was interrupted by a shorter event.

I was cooking dinner when the phone rang.

The ongoing action (was cooking) uses past continuous; the interrupting event (rang) uses past simple.

Form

Use was for singular subjects (I, he, she, it) and were for plural or you. The -ing form of the main verb never changes.

Examples

• At midnight, she was still working on her assignment.
• They were not listening when the teacher explained the rule.
• Were you waiting long before the bus arrived?

Common mistakes

• Using past continuous for very short, instantaneous actions: "He was sneezing" sounds odd for a single sneeze — "He sneezed" (past simple) is correct.
• Forgetting was vs were: "You was late" should be "You were late".