Past Continuous

We use the Past Continuous to talk about an action that was in progress at a certain moment in the past. We make it with was or were plus the -ing form of the verb: 'was' goes with I, he, she and it, and 'were' goes with you, we and they. For example, 'At eight o'clock last night I was doing my homework' shows the action was already happening at that time. The Past Continuous is often used together with the Past Simple to show that a short action interrupted a longer one: 'While I was reading, the phone rang.' The longer background action uses the Past Continuous and the shorter, completed action uses the Past Simple. We usually use 'when' before the Past Simple (the short action) and 'while' before the Past Continuous (the long action), as in 'When she arrived, we were having dinner' and 'While we were having dinner, she arrived.' To make negatives we add 'not' (was not / were not, or wasn't / weren't), and to make questions we put was or were before the subject, as in 'Were you sleeping at midnight?'