roo the past continuous tense

The past continuous tense

Tvpicalforms of this tense are as shown In: but not I wos liking it.

the past continuous tense

ror

to talk about a short action that happened whilst a longer one was already tal<ing place.
While I was waiting for the bus I dropped my purse.

lwaswinning. Shewoswinning. They werewinning.

Wasl winning? Wasshewinning? Wereyouwinning?

to describe a scene in the past, especially in a story.

Itwas
o dreadful morning.The snow was stillfalling,thewind was blowing, andthe carswere skidding ontheic\ roads.

Iwasnotwinning
Wewere notwinning.
They

but not I wos not liking it.

weren'twinning.

varieties of English. These are generally verbs about states rather than feelings.
We use the past continuous tense in these ways:

Some main verbs are not normally used in the continuous In standard British English, though they may be used this way in other

with

time expression, such as at6p.m' yesterday,to talkaboutan action that began before that time and finished after it. The exact length of time the action took is not important.
a

whatwereyou doing at eighto'clocklast night?

I was standing atthe bus stoq.

to talkaboutan interrupted action. Notethatforthe eventthat interrupts the action, we use the past simple tense.
We were

all sitting in our places when the bell rang'