Past Continuous tense is used when the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past. This tense is used to talk about an action at a particular time in the past. The action began before that moment but has not finished at that moment.
• Structure for Past Continuous •
subject
auxiliary verb
main verb
subject
be (was/were)
base + ing
I
was
going.
• Structure for Negative sentence •
subject
auxiliary verb
main verb
subject
be(was/were) + not
base + ing
I
was not
going.
• Structure for interrogative sentence •
auxiliary verb
subject
main verb
be (was/were)
subject
base form
was
I
going?
We use the past continuous tense for:
action at a particular moment in the past,
action started before that moment but has not finished,
talking about time of action in the past.
USES OF PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Past Continuous is used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. The time of the action may or may not be indicated.
Examples
We werelistening to the radio all evening.
It wasgetting darker.
This tenses is also used, with always, continually, etc., for persistent habits in the past.
Examples
He was always grumbling.
He was continually playing.
We use the past continuous tense when our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about.