PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE | English grammar and exercises

Here is an English lesson about the past continuous tense. This tense is also known as the past progressive.

In this video, I explain the past continuous form - the affirmative, negative and question forms. The negative form also has a contracted form.

The past continuous affirmative form is made up of the subject, the past form of the verb "to be" and then the -ing form of the main verb (also called the present participle)

An example is: "I was walking".

The past continuous tense has several uses. The main use is to describe a long action that is happening around another shorter action in the past. For the shorter action, we use the past simple. An example is "I was talking to Mark when the telephone rang."

We also use the past progressive tense to set the scene in a story, to describe 2 long actions that happen in parallel (the same time). I explain these uses and a few others with examples in this lesson.

At the end of the lesson, there are a few English grammar exercises to test your understanding.

The accent in the video is a British English accent.

Andrew,
Crown Academy of English

Photo credits:

[CrownAcademyEnglish]

Please tell other English students about my channel and give them the link below:

Andrew
Crown Academy of English

[AndrzejLondyn]

Thank you. I consider myself as an advanced learner but for me, the most interesting pieces of information were the usage of the Past Continuous 1. to set the scenery in the story and 2. with "always" to describe annoying habits.

[MrBoomTV-mz]

All of these informations are very very much more beneficial for learning the English which the boy at the moment. Thanks a lot 😢😢

[jeongminyoun]

Thanks. Your video was good to me.
I hadn't been known past continuous exactly almost 100 days.

[ntaban]

You are the best Teacher, do you know I have watched many videos but no one were you. Thanks

[Brunaldj]

I was watching this video while my sister was studying Biology. Nice video! I learned a lot!

[engin]

While I was listening your lesson, I remembered my all previous mistakes in English grammar. Patient is virtue, that you have in your teaching .

[albertoalbertoni]

Andrew, you are a great teacher... your tone of voice is reassuring, it is a pleasure to listen to your lessons.

[Leo]

Can we use the past continuous to talk about the duration of an action that may have been incomplete?

Yesterday evening, I was building this model wooden ship for forty minutes.

I think "built" — the past simple is wrong here because it means that it was completed.

[Bouchka]

Hi Andrew,
Your lessons are very clear and detailed, it's a pleasure for me. I regret not having discovered your videos earlier, but it's never too late to do well. Thank you for all this.

[mohamedyagoub]

In the first time in my life I
understand Past Continuous very well
Thank you so much Andrew

[abduldaley]

thank you for helping me to learning English.

[__viker]

While I was learning English, I wanted to sleeping. Thanks teacher!

[saniyasejwar]

Thank you for coming up with such a nice videos. These videos are very nice prepared. I like them so much

[sujithaprasadini]

Thank you Andrew. Your teaching is very clear.

[hopetub]

I am so happy by your system of teaching keep it up God bless you

[rohit.rohitt]

1-While I was watching your video, my friend was calling me.
2- I was reading newspaper when I woke up.
3- He was calling me while I was sleeping.

[janicedavy]

While I was learning English with you Mr Andrew, I was watching a match of football Euro 2016.

[mariamdiallo]

I am very happy you are doing this to help people like me, to learn English so thank you. mariama

I was learning English while my husband was cooking food.