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The Past Continuous Tense

IV. Nouns Used only in the Plural | I. The Formation | V. Articles with Nouns in the Possessive Case | General Characteristic | II. Degrees of Comparison | IV. The Use of the Present Indefinite | III. The Use of Present Continuous. | IV. Verbs Not Used in the Continuous Forms. | V. The Present Continuous vs. The Present Indefinite. | V. The Present Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite |


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I. The Formation

The Past Continuous is formed by means of the Past Indefinite of the auxiliary verb ''to be'' and Participle I of the notional verb.

In the interrogative form the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject.

In the negative form the negative particle 'not' is placed after the auxiliary verb.



 

II. The Use

1) The Past Continuous is used to denote an action going on at a definite moment in the past. We do not mention when the action started or finished. The moment of time may be indicated either by another past action expressed by a verb in the Past Indefinite or by an adverbial phrase. The definite moment is often not expressed directly. It may be shown by the previous context or understood from the situation. And if there are two or more actions in progress at the same time in the past we use the Past Continuous with them all:

2) We use the Past Continuous for an action which was in progress when another action interrupted it. We use the Past Continuous for the action in progress (longer action) and the past simple for the action which interrupted it (shorter action).

3) We use the Past Continuous to describe the atmosphere, setting, etc. in the introduction to a story (background events) before we describe the main events.

Note 1: Because we often use the Past Continuous to talk about something that is a “background”, not the main “news”, we can make something seem less important by using this tense. Compare:

Note 2: The Past Continuous is quite often used with verbs of saying: this gives more relative importance to the following verb – to what is said:

 

4) The Past Continuous is used to denote temporary actions in the past:

Note 1: The Past Continuous is often used with such phrases as the whole day, the whole month, all day long, from... till... It can be applied only to a single action which is not part of a succession of actions.

 

5) The Past Continuous is used to denote developing or changing actions in the past.

6) The Past Continuous is used for actions characterizing certain persons in the past. In such sentences the adverbials always, ever, constantly are used. Such sentences are emotionally coloured. That means that the actions happened repeatedly and unexpectedly or in an unplanned and unpleasant way.

7) We can make requests, suggestions and questions more tentative and polite by using the Past Continuous. We often use the verbs think and wonder:

8) The Past Continuous is used for future actions viewed from the past:

a) to denote past arrangements, usually with verbs of motion. The arranged event may or may not have taken place:

Note 1: If no future reference of the action is evident it implies that though the action was planned, it was not and will not be carried out.

 

b) in adverbial clauses of time and condition often after the conjunction while.

 


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