Past Continuous
Lesson 6 of 7 · ~7 minutes

Lesson 6 · Past Continuous

Continuous or Simple

Continuous or simple

Both tenses talk about the past, and often both are grammatically possible. The choice is a choice of view: show the action from inside, as a process, or show it whole, as a fact.

Process or fact

  • in progressAt eight I was reading — the moment inside the action matters
  • factI read the book and went out — the whole event, with a beginning and an end
  • habitEvery Sunday we played football — it was repeated and finished each time
  • stateI knew the answer — know, understand, like, want, need, have

What we show

the action was in progress at that moment
the whole event, from start to finish
it happened many times
a state, not an action

Time

Past Continuous
Past Simple
Past Simple
Past Simple
What we show
Time
the action was in progress at that moment
Past Continuous
the whole event, from start to finish
Past Simple
it happened many times
Past Simple
a state, not an action
Past Simple

At eight I was reading, and at ten I finished the book.

Every Sunday we played football in the park.

Where people usually slip

The linking word doesn't choose the tense. When works with both: When I was writing the report, the lights went out and When you called, we were talking about the plan.

So does while: While she was reading, I washed the plates and went to bed. It's not the word that decides, but what was in progress and what was finished.

Where people usually slip

Six state verbs stay simple in the past too: know, understand, like, want, need, and have meaning “own”.

I knew the answer, not I was knowing it. A state isn't a process in progress — it simply was.

In short

  • a moment inside the actionPast Continuous
  • the whole eventPast Simple
  • habitPast Simple
  • know, want, needPast Simple
  • when / whiledon't choose the tense
Back to lessons