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The Past Continuous
What is it?

Try to identify the past continuous in the following paragraph.

Yesterday I was watching TV when the phone rang. It was Shannon. She was watching Oprah, who was talking to Peter Walsh about cleaning out the clutter from your home. My mother was sitting at the table with me but she was reading a book while I ate my dinner.

Look closely. was watching...was watching...was talking...was sitting. Do you see a pattern?

[was/were + present participle]

There are several ways to use this tense but in this paragraph we can see two ways.

1) To describe an action that happens in the past and is interrupted by another action. (I was watching TV when the phone rang).

2) To describe an action that takes place at the same time as another action. (I was eating my dinner while she read a book).

Another way to use this grammar tense is to establish atmosphere. (The sun was shining all day).

Now that you understand the grammar let's USE it! If you would like to practice using this grammar point and receive one-to-one feed back...for FREE, write the exercise explained below and I will send you a revision of your work.

Lesson Number Three

Learn how to use the Past Continuous by Telling me a Story

In this lesson I want you to tell me about your last trip or vacation. You can use many different tenses but I want you to focus on the past continuous. What were you doing on your trip? I would like you to also include the following three elements.

1) What you liked about your vacation.

2) Describe how you got to your destination (transport: Plane, car, train)

3) Describe the weather during your trip.

Enter a title for your story

Tell us about your last vacation! [ ? ]

Close Help

Entering your story is easy to do. Just type!...

Your story will appear on a Web page exactly the way you enter it here. You can wrap a word in square brackets to make it appear bold. For example [my story] would show as my story on the Web page containing your story.

TIP: Since most people scan Web pages, include your best thoughts in your first paragraph.

Upload A Picture from your vacation (optional) [ ? ]

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Do you have a picture to add? Great! Click the button and find it on your computer. Then select it.

Add Picture Caption (optional) 

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What Other Visitors Have Said

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Trip to my Motherland  Not rated yet
Last month I went on vacation to my parents to Ukraine by plane. There we have spent a very good time. As the weather is more colder in Ukraine than ...

A Memerable Trip  Not rated yet
Hi Ragini,
Thank you so much for sending in your assignment. Great work! Don't be frustrated by the changes. You wrote a very good story and it will ...

Use the past continuous to ask me a question!

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