PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE AND ITS USES
The past continuous tense or the present progressive tense is used to describe an event or action that was occurring at a specific time in the past.
Let's study the following example-
Yesterday Neha and Vikash arranged a quiz programme in our school. The programme started at 1:00 p.m. and ended at 3:00 p.m. They asked the participants a lot of interesting questions. So at 2:00 pm. the students of our school were participating in the quiz programme. 'They were participating ' means they were in the middle of the action of participation. They had not completed the action. This is the past continuous tense. It says that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time in the past. The action had started before the time mentioned but had not finished.
CONJUGATION OF VERB 'to Drive'
AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCE
(Sub+ was/were+ Present Participle form of the verb)
1st Person (Singular):- I was driving.
1st Person (Plural):- We were driving.
2nd Person (Singular):- You were driving.
2nd Person ( Plural):- We were driving.
3rd Person (Plural):- He was driving./ She was driving. / Dhruba was driving.
3rd Person (Plural):- They were driving./ Dhruba and Nitin were driving.
NEGATIVE SENTENCE
(Sub + was/were +not+ +Present Participle form of the verb)
1st Person (Singular) :- I was not driving
1st Person (Plural):- We were not driving.
2nd Person (Singular):- You were not driving.
2nd Person (Plural) :-You were not driving.
3rd Person (Singular):- He was not driving./She was not driving./ Raghabendra was not driving.
3rd Person (Plural):- They were not driving./ Prakash and Parikshit were not driving.
INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
(Was/Were +Sub + Present Participle form of the verb?)
1st Person (Singular):- Was I driving?
1st Person (Plural):- Were we driving?
2nd Person (Singular):- Were you drving?
2nd Person (Plural):- Were you driving?
3rd Person (Singular):- Was he/she driving? Was Pritam driving?
3rd Person (Plural):- Were they driving?/ Were Pritam and Pratiksha driving?
USES
The past continuous tense is used to describe the following situations -
i) The Past Continuous Tense is used to describe an event or action which was in progress at a point of time or over a period of time in the past.
EXAMPLES:-
It was raining all the morning yesterday.
(It means the act of raining went on for the whole period)
She was working in the garden in the afternoon yesterday.
The boy was doing homework at 7 a.m. this morning.
(It means at 7o' clock the boy was in the middle of action. He started doing homework before 7 a.m. and stopped some time after seven.)
This time last year you were working in Chennai.
What were you doing at 8 o' clock last night?
{(Note:- We can replace the time expression with a verb in the simple tense.
What were you doing when the teacher came?
ii) The Past Continuous Tense is used to suggest the gradual development of the action in the past with verbs like grow, get, become etc.
It was getting darker.
The child was growing taller.
The girl was becoming more and more nervous.
Your grandmother was getting old.
iii) The Past Continuous Tense is used to describe an action when another action took place. In such a situation the Past Continuous Tense describes the action which was in progress in the past and the Past Indefinite describes a shorter action or event. The action which was in progress is often introduced by Conjunctions like 'when', 'while' ,'as', 'just as' etc.
EXAMPLES:-
Someone knocked at the door while I was sleeping in the room. (Here the action in the Past Continuous Tense was 'sleeping'. It started before the action in the Past Indefinite (knocked)}.
Let's see another sentence
Tom was talking on his phone when I arrived.
Here we convey the idea that the action in the past continuous tense (talking on his phone) started before the action in the simple past (arrived) and probably continued after it.
(A Practical English Grammar- Thomson and Martinet.)
Some other examples are-
A car knocked him down while he was crossing the road.
The light went out while they were reading.
I was having a nice dream when someone knocked at the door.
It started to rain while we were playing.
Just I was entering the room, the earth began to shake.
I was walking home when I met your mother.
In these sentences we find that something happened in the middle of something else.
iv) The Past Continuous Tense is used to express the fact that that two or more parellel actions ( simultaneous actions) were in progress.
While she was reading, we were discussing the matter.
(This sentence shows that 'reading' and 'discussing the matter'
continued side by side.)
Some other examples:-
While Neha was singing, Bristi was dancing.
You were not listening properly while the leader was giving us some important instructions.
Preety were sleeping while we were discussing the matter.
.v) The Past Continuous Tense is used with the adverbs like continuously or constantly to express a frequently repeated action causing irritation, annoyance, or disapproval to the speaker.
She was always complaining.
He was always ringing me up.
He was constantly asking for money.
The boy was continually asking silly questions.
vi) The past continuous tense can be used as an alternative to the simple past to indicate a more casual, less deliberate action:
I was discussing the matter with my coleagues.
This sentence suggests that the speaker had not planned to discuss the matter with his coleagues.
If we write this srntence usiing Simple Past-
'I discussed the matter with my colleagues.' - It means that the speaker had planned to discuss the matter with his colleagues
(Let's see what Thomson and Martinet write in ' A Practical English Grammar on this matter-
The past continuous can be used as an alternative to the simple past to indicate a more casual, less deliberate action:
'I was talking to Tom the other day.'
The past continuous here gives the impression that the action was no way unusual or remarkable. It also tends to remove responsibility from the subject. In the above example it was not clear who started conversation and it does not matter. Note the contrast with the simple past tense, ' I talked to Tom' - which indicates that I took the initiative.
From four to six Tom was washing the car.
This would indicate that this was a casual, possibly routine action.
Compare with:
From four to six Tom washed the car.
(Implying a deliberate action by Tom.)
vi) The past continuous tense is used to describe the background of a story, event etc.
The sun was rising as the birds began to chirp.
She was sleeping in the room. Her mother came in and gave her a paper. It was a letter written by some unknown man. She began to read it aloud.
{Here we find the combination of descriptions (past continuous) with narrative in the past indefinite.(Thomson and Martinet)}
Some other examples:-
I was walking along the road when I saw the stranger.
They were playing in the school playground when the beggar began to cry for help. The play stopped for a while.
vi) We make a polite enquiry using the Past Continuous Tense. The use of Past Continuous is considered more polite and tentative.
EXAMPLES:-
I was wondering if you could give me the information.
