Past continuous – Exercise 398

Drag each element from the list below to the right gap.

— What

you

when I

you?

— I

a BBC programme.

doing

was

were

called

watching

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Past continuous use — reference

The past continuous stresses that the action in the past had some duration.

Examples

A: What were you doing at 4 p.m. yesterday? B: I was playing tennis.

John was working all evening yesterday.

The past continuous often goes together with the past simple. The past continuous shows a longer background action whereas the past simple is used for the shorter action:

I was doing something when something happened.

Examples

I was having a shower when you rang the doorbell. was having — long background action, rang — short action

Helen was cooking — longer background action dinner when the children came back. was cooking — long background action, came back — short action

It wasn't raining when I woke up. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. wasn't raining, was shining, were singing — long background action, woke up — short action