Introduction
The past continuous (or progressive) is the tense used to express situations that take place in the past and were in progress at any moment during a period of time.
When expressed in its interrogative form, it is used to ask questions about things that were happening in a past period of time.
Form
The past continuous, in its interrogative form, has this structure:
Was/Were + subject + [verb + -ing] + …?
- Was/were: past simple of the verb to be.
Was/Were | Subject | Verb + -ing | Question Mark |
---|---|---|---|
Was | I | working | …? |
Were | you | working | …? |
Was | he/she/it | working | …? |
Were | we/you/they | working | …? |
Example
- Was she reading a book when I called her?
- Were they still watching TV when she returned from work at 7 o’clock?
- Was he crossing the road?
- Was she practising sport every day last year to prepare for the race?
- Were they talking while the kids were playing?
- Was her mother working on the laptop, her father watching TV and her sister studying when she went home?
- Was I always going late to class?
Use
We use past continuous tense, in its interrogative form, to ask:
- a longer background action interrupted by an unexpected shorter one (something suddenly happens while another longer event was already in progress);
- an event that was occurring at an exact time in the past (expressing the date, hour or giving specific time information about an event in progress occurring at a past time);
- an uninterrupted action which was in progress for a while (event in progress in the past during an extended period of time);
- the length of time period in the past (event in progress in the past during an extended period of time);
- past simultaneous actions (two events happened at the same time);
- sequence of actions which occurred in the past (usually used to describe a situation in which different events were happening at the same time);
- repeated or annoying action (with always or similar expressions that suggest the idea of a repeated event).
Summary
We use the past continuous, in the interrogative form, to ask for situations that occurred in the past and were in progress at every moment during a period of time.
When we use past continuous in its interrogative form, we start with was or were followed by the subject and the verb with -ing (the sentence ends with a question mark).
For example:
— “Was I playing football when the phone rang?” = We use past continuous to ask if something was interrupted when the phone rang.
♦ “Did I play football?” = We use past simple to ask about an action which started and concluded in the past.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.