How to form past continuous
We form the past continuous tense by using the auxiliary verb was/were (the past of am/is/are) and the main verb + -ing ending:
was/were + -ing
Compare:
I am working → I was working
She is reading → She was reading
They are walking → They were walking
| Positive | ||
|---|---|---|
| I he she it |
was | doing working studying playing dancing |
| we you they |
were | |
| Negative | ||
|---|---|---|
| I he she it |
was not (wasn't) |
doing working studying playing dancing |
| we you they |
were not (weren't) |
|
| Question | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| What Why Where How ... |
was | I he she it |
doing? working? studying? playing? dancing? |
| were | we you they |
||
Examples
A: What were you doing at a quarter to six yesterday? B: I was going home from work.
Yesterday she was wearing shoes and today she's wearing sneakers.
On Tuesday evening we were meeting my parents.
He wasn't living in Brussels in 2015 (twenty fifteen).
Short answers
We use short answers not to repeat the whole sentence. For the short negative answer it is better to use the short form — wasn't or weren't.
Examples
A: Were you playing video games at ten o'clock in the evening yesterday? B: No, I wasn't.
A: Were they talking when you came in? B: No, they weren't.