Past Continuous

The Past Continuous is used for actions or situations that happened over a period of time. For example:

- We were playing tennis with some friends from work.
- The sun was shining this morning.

The Past Continuous is made with the past form of to be and the -ing form.

Usage

The Past Continuous is used for actions which are taking progress in the past. We are in the middle of these actions, they have started but not yet finished. For example:
- We were playing tennis yesterday afternoon.
- What were you doing? I was having lunch with my sister.

The Past Continuous and Past Simple are often used together to show that one situation happened during another one. The Past Continuous is used for a background event that has already started, and the Past Simple is used to introduce a new event. For example:
- I was walking in the park when it started to rain. - "Walking in the park" is a background situation, and "it started to rain" is the new event of interest.
- It was raining so I ran back home.
- While I was running, the rain stopped.
- It wasn't raining, so I walked in the park again.

Note that if we want to show that one situation happened after another one, we usually use the Past Simple. For example:
- Yesterday I walked in the park, it started to rain, I ran back home, and the rain stopped.

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