The past continuous – Form

past continuous form

 

The past continuous – Use

Actions in progress

We use the past continuous to talk about actions that were in progress (not finished) at a specific moment in the past.

The specific moment in the past can be described by a time expression  (at 9 a.m., at midday, at lunchtime, all morning, all day, etc.):

Or by a simple past sentence:

Describing a scene

We often use the past continuous at the beginning of a story to describe the situation.

 

Past simple vs Past continuous

We use the past simple for completed actions in the past, and we use the past continuous for actions in progress (not finished) in the past.

The past continuous describes a longer action or situation and the past simple describes a shorter action or event.

The short action in past simple often interrupts the longer action in past continuous.

We use the past simple for completed actions that happened one after the other. Compare: