Past Continuous
Lesson 2 of 7 · ~5 minutes

Lesson 2 · Past Continuous

At that moment

At that moment

The past continuous puts the camera at one moment in the past and shows that an action was in progress then. It started before that time and ended after it: At 8:30 I was waiting for the train.

A moment inside the action

  • beforethe action had already started: I started at seven
  • momentAt eight I was working — this is the slice we describe
  • afterthe action hadn't finished yet: I finished at nine

The film started at seven. At eight we were watching it.

It started to rain at one and stopped at four. At two it was raining hard.

Where people usually slip

A time in the sentence isn't the answer; it's only part of the picture. At eight works with both the past simple and the past continuous: At eight the film started — the whole event; At eight we were watching it — a moment inside the action.

Don't look at the word; look at whether the action was in progress at that moment.

In short

  • questionwhat was in progress at that moment?
  • formwas / were + verb-ing
  • signstarted before the moment, ended after it
  • not a signat eight on its own
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