What is past continuous tense

The past continuous tense is one of the easiest tenses in English. It describes actions or situations that were ongoing at a specific point in the past.

What is past continuous tense used for?

Past continuous tense is commonly used to show an action that was happening in the background when another event occurred or show more than one actions that are happening at the same time.

1. To show an action that was happening when another event occurred.

This is a very common usage for past continuous tense. We will notice that there is one action that is ongoing first, then another event occured. Let's look at some examples:

• Present continuous - My mother is cooking dinner.

• Past continuous - My mother was cooking dinner when I got (V.2) home.

Notice how in the second example, cooking was happening in the background. Let's see another comparison.

• Present continuous - I am reading a book.

• Past continuous - The phone rang (V.2) while I was reading a book.

It is also important to note that both actions do not need to happen at the same place. For example:

• Tom was working at the restaurant when her mom fell down the stairs.

• While I was watching TV, the light went out.

2. To describe two or more events that are happening in parallel

Compared to the examples above, we will see that now both actions are happening at the same time.

• She is cooking dinner while he is setting the table.

• John was working on his computer while I was doing the laundry.

Practice questions

Fill the blanks with simple past and past continuous tenses.