Past
Continuous
At a certain moment in the past, an action was in progress. The moment matters, not the start or the end: tell it with was / were + -ing.
For teachers
- Start with “What were you doing at 8 o'clock yesterday?” Each student draws a time (8:00, 9:30, 21:00) and makes a sentence: At nine o'clock I was doing my homework. Examples from their own life fix the pattern fastest.
- Mime game. One student silently acts out an activity (reading, cooking). The class says You were reading! Movement gives the past tense its “at that moment” feeling.
- Point versus line on the timeline. Draw the past simple as a square on the line (a finished event) and the past continuous as a wavy line (an action in progress). Topic 8 puts the two tenses together; the picture will be ready.
- A short list for stative verbs. Make a “these verbs don't take -ing” card for know, like, love, want, need, believe, understand. Have students write sentences and let the class correct the wrong ones.
- A while game: two students do two different actions at the same time. The class says While Ali was writing, Ayşe was drawing.
- Do the “Type it” level with books closed. The last question accepts two answers: a good chance to show that tenses don't always have a single right form.
Topic order
Related pages
What it's for
The form: was / were + -ing. Was goes with I / he / she / it, were with you / we / they: I was reading. They were playing. The negative is wasn't / weren't and questions start with Was / Were: Were you sleeping? Yes, I was. No, I wasn't.
The main use: an action in progress at a particular moment in the past. At 8 o'clock yesterday, I was having breakfast. At eight I was in the middle of breakfast; when it started or finished doesn't matter. Pick a point on the timeline and the action is going on at that point.
Two actions going on at the same time: while. While I was cooking, my brother was doing his homework. Both actions ran in parallel for a while, and both take was / were + -ing. While means “during the time that”.
Setting the scene. When telling a story we build the background with the past continuous: It was raining and the wind was blowing. The events (I opened the door) come in the past simple. Topic 8 on this site studies how the two tenses work together.
Not every verb takes -ing. Stative verbs such as know, like, love, want, need, believe, understand, have (possess) are normally used in the past simple: I knew the answer. (I was knowing). Verbs that describe an activity (read, play, run, cook) take -ing naturally.
The patterns side by side
| Positive | was / were + -ing | I was reading. They were playing. |
| Negative | wasn't / weren't + -ing | I wasn't reading. They weren't playing. |
| Question | Was / Were + subject + -ing? | Were you sleeping? Was she working? |
| Short answer | Yes, I was. · No, they weren't. | Was he sleeping? No, he wasn't. |
| Question word | Question word + was / were + subject + -ing? | What were you doing at eight? |
| -ing spelling | drop e · double a short vowel + consonant | make → making, run → running, lie → lying |
Signals: which tense?
Don't skip the last three rows: a single finished action, stative verbs and events in sequence ask for the past simple. The past continuous means “in progress then”, not “finished”.
Common mistakes
and who tends to make themThese eight mistakes turn up in classrooms everywhere. Three sources explain most of them: leaving out was / were, putting -ing on every verb, and mixing up the past continuous and the past simple. Under each one you'll see who tends to make it.
Why: -ing on its own doesn't show the tense. Was / were carries the past, so the auxiliary is always needed.
Who makes it: Beginners at A1–A2 who have just learned -ing and attach it to a verb like the present participle in their own language.
Why: They / we / you take were and I / he / she / it take was. Saying was with a plural subject is a very common slip.
Who makes it: Learners at every level who default to was because it is the first past form of be they learned.
Why: Know, like, love, want, need, believe, understand describe a state, not an activity, so they take the past simple. They feel like “was -ing” to a learner, but English doesn't use -ing with them.
Who makes it: Learners who think -ing sounds more natural or more fluent, and speakers of languages where states can take the progressive.
Why: Arrive is a single instant event, and instant events take the past simple. The past continuous is for activities that go on for a while; was arriving only works in special senses such as “was on the way there”.
Who makes it: Learners who hear “while / when + something happening” and apply the continuous to any verb in the clause.
Why: A past continuous question starts with Was / Were, not did. Did belongs only to the past simple.
Who makes it: Learners who have just learned that every past question uses did and apply it to the continuous too.
Why: Make the negative with wasn't / weren't + -ing. Didn't and was are never used together; was carries its own negative.
Who makes it: The same learners, for negatives: didn't becomes their automatic past negative.
Why: A short vowel plus one final consonant doubles the consonant: run → running, sit → sitting. A silent e drops: make → making, write → writing. Verbs ending in ie change to ying: lie → lying.
Who makes it: Learners who treat -ing as a fixed ending and don't yet know the doubling and e-dropping rules.
Why: When events come one after another, each one finishes before the next begins: all past simple. The past continuous is for a scene in progress behind the events.
Who makes it: Learners who think the continuous sounds “more descriptive” and use it for every verb in a story.