Past continuous tense and Lesya Ukrainka's life story

Past Continuous – this is the tense, which indicates an action that was happening at a specific moment in the past. If you want to describe riding a bike in the park yesterday evening, use this tense. If you're not familiar with the rules of using Past Continuous, we'll help you solve this problem now. And we'll also tell you a bit more about the new course from Booyya.

Past Continuous: basic rules for usage in English

The Past Continuous tense in English allows you to describe events that were ongoing in the past over a period of time. 

Such sentences usually cover two events. For example: The children were doing their homework when I got home. Here, both the speaker's return home and the children doing their homework in the evening are described simultaneously. Even if the speaker describes only one event in this tense, it becomes clear that this action was ongoing at a specific time in the past: I was training yesterday at 7 o'clock.

The structure for forming sentences in Past Continuous follows these rules: 

Subject + was/were + V-ing
 

• The players were playing well in the last part of the game 

To form a question in this tense in English, you need to place were or was (depending on the subject) at the beginning or after the question word:

• Were the players playing well in the last part of the game? 

• Where were the players playing well? 

Negative sentences in this tense, according to grammatical rules, are formed by adding the particle not  to was or were:

• The team was not (wasn’t) playing well until the second half.

When to use Past Continuous in speech

Here are 5 of the most common cases for using this tense:

1. Long-lasting action in the past that was interrupted by another short action in the past. These are often complex sentences using words like after, while, or when. Example: Yuliia was leaving her home when she saw a missed call on her smartphone.

2. Indicating a specific time in the past. Be careful to ensure that the action was ongoing; otherwise, Past Simple should be used. Example: At midnight everyone at the party was still having fun 

3. An action that was frequently performed in the past but is no longer relevant. These sentences usually contain words or phrases indicating frequency or regularity. Example: She was always trying to please her mom.

4. Emphasizing the duration of an action in the past. Or how long was spent on a particular task. Example: Ballerinas were preparing all year for this performance 

5. Narrating a literary story. Learning the rules of this tense can be facilitated by any novel that describes scenes occurring against the backdrop of/or preceding the main events of the plot. Example: Visitors at the restaurant were enjoying their meals. Then there was an explosion 

Verbs that are never used in the Past Continuous tense in English

English, like any other language, has state verbs that denote permanent states or feelings. These verbs are non-continuous. Therefore, they cannot be used in any continuous tense. Here is a list of the most commonly used state verbs (verbs not used in Past Continuous):

• Believe

• Hate

• Know

• Love

• Need

• Prefer

• Seem

• Understand

If you need to use such a verb in the past tense, then instead of Past Continuous rules, recall Past Simple:

• I understood physics class until we started atomic physics 

Using the construction “was understanding” in the above sentence would be a semantic error. However, you may encounter such examples in informal English.

How to quickly memorize the rules related to the Past Continuous tense in English

To quickly learn the grammar of Past Continuous, use the new course from Booyya. It contains just one lesson describing the life and work of Lesia Ukrainka. In an engaging format, you will understand how to construct sentences in the continuous tense. The course will also help you:

• Learn to understand English by ear, as the nuances of this tense are presented in storytelling form;

• Test your knowledge and skills with interactive exercises;

• Permanently memorize complex grammar, as a bonus to the course you will receive a rules table;

• Expand your vocabulary or feel more confident in conversations;

• Learn more about the history of Ukrainian culture and how to talk about it to foreign friends.

The course on the rules of Past Continuous is designed for Intermediate-level students, as the instructor's language is English. However, mastering the new knowledge will not be difficult, as the information is presented in an engaging video format. Just one lesson – and the complex topic is mastered!