Past Continuous

Past Continuous

This verbal tense is also named Past Progressive and as in all the continuous or progressive tenses it describes an ongoing action, event or experience that was occurring during a certain period in the past though we do not know whether it finished or not. We must remember that the rest of languages have the same pattern in Continuous tenses as English mainly Latin derived languages such as Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese in which we use this pattern in Continuous tenses:

 Verb “BE” (ser o estar) + V-ing (Gerund)

In the past we use “was/were” and the main verb ending in -ing.

When the verb ends in one only consonant and vowel, the consonant is doubled.

Examples:

The branch was hitting the wall with the wind.

The driver was stopping the vehicle to avoid an accident.

 

I was travelling to the UK.- Yo estaba viajando al Reino Unido

You were travelling to the UK- Tú estabas viajando al R.U.

He / She / It was travelling to the UK- Él /Ella / Ello estaba viajando al R.U.

 

We were travelling to the UK- Nosotros/as estabamos viajando al R.U.

You were travelling to the UK-Vosotros/as estabáis viajando al R.U.

They were travelling to the UK- Ellos/as estaban viajando al R.U.

 

The negative form is easily formed because we already have the auxiliary verb, and we just add the negative particle “not” to  the auxiliary verb “be” in their past forms “was/were”. For example:

I was not listening him. You were not studying. We were not running.

 

Then we can also use the contraction, as usual we replace the vowel “o” in the negative particle for the apostrophe. Examples:

 I wasn´t shouting. You weren´t cleaning. We weren´t eating. They weren´t eating. He wasn´t speaking.

In the interrogative form we invert the order so when we start reading it we can speak it with the proper intonation as an interrogative. Thus we start the interrogative sentence in the auxiliary verb “Was/ Were” followed by the subject and the verb in the progressive or Gerund form and the rest of the sentence such as Indirect or Direct Object, Adverbial and other complements.

Examples:

Was he working in the factory?                Were they sleeping in the hostel?

Were you accompanying her?                 Was it bringing the carriage?

 In all the interrogative sentences beginning with the verb “Be, Have or Do” we have to reply in a short answer with the same pattern:

Yes, subject-   Auxiliary verb

No,       “         Auxiliary verb + not.

It is advisable to use the contracted form in the negative short answer. Examples:

Were you applying for the job? Yes, I was / we were.  No, I wasn´t / we weren´t.

Was he hiding his identity?   Yes, he was.         No, he wasn´t.

Were they winning the match? Yes, they were.         No, they weren´t.

 Sometimes we can find in the same sentence two tenses, one in Past Simple and another in the Past Continuous though each tense is usually preceded by the conjunct “when” (cuando) before the Past Simple phrase and “while” (mientras que) before the Past Continuous. Sometimes before the Past Continuous phrase we can also find the conjuncts “just when” or “as/ long as”.

Examples:

While I was hanging out with my friends, we heard a blast in the garden.

They saw the ghost while they were chatting in the tower.

Just when I was opening the door a firefighter came in to my shop.

As long as we were sitting down in the sofa we did not realise the problem.

Just when they were doing the washing up in the kitchen, the alarm clock rang.

You weren´t cooking in the stove when I saw you from the window.

When we met him we were having dinning at the restaurant.

She was talking to her neighbour in her garden when she screamed.

She was walking out the dog when she met her former boyfriend.