Grammar

Past Continuous tense

1,840 fill-in-the-gap exercises across 4 forms

For something already in progress at a past moment. It sets the scene; the Past Simple supplies the event.

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When you need it

• Already under way at a past moment. At eight o’clock we were having dinner.
• Interrupted by something shorter. I was reading when the lights went out.
• Two long actions at the same time. She was cooking while he was setting the table.
• Background in a story. The rain was falling and nobody was talking.

The tense almost never stands alone. It exists to give another event something to happen against.

The pair that carries most sentences

English splits a scene into two parts, and each takes its own tense:

• the longer action, running in the background — Past Continuous
• the shorter action that cuts into it — Past Simple

I was walking home when I met your brother.

The joining words follow the same split: while introduces the long action, when usually introduces the short one.

While I was walking home, I met your brother.

was or were

Only one choice, and it does not match the Present Simple pattern:

• was — I, he, she, it
• were — you, we, they

Note that I takes was here, although it takes am in the present and were in the second conditional (if I were you).

State verbs stay simple

The same list as in the present: know, understand, believe, want, like, need, own, seem, mean, belong. These do not take -ing, so a past state is expressed with the Past Simple:

I wanted to help. — not I was wanting to help.

All forms

Mistakes to avoid