PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE – Everything You Need to Know

[00:00:00]Today's lesson is about the past continuous tense.

[00:00:05]We are going to do this step by step.

[00:00:08]Keep watching because later I have something special to give you that will really help you understand how this tense is used in real life.

[00:00:20]My name's Arnel.

[00:00:22]Let's start. Grammar basics.

[00:00:26]Subject was or were plus verb ing.

[00:00:31]I was studying. You were yawning.

[00:00:37]Yawn is when you When you do that. That's yawning.

[00:00:46]He was running. She was sleeping. It was working. We were joking. They were complaining.

[00:00:57]You can see you can really use any ing verb.

[00:01:03]How do we form the negative?

[00:01:05]It's easy. Just add not.

[00:01:10]I was not studying.

[00:01:13]You were not yawning.

[00:01:16]Let's make this natural and contract.

[00:01:20]He wasn't running.

[00:01:23]She wasn't sleeping.

[00:01:25]It wasn't working.

[00:01:27]We weren't joking.

[00:01:30]They weren't complaining.

[00:01:33]Let's move on to the question form.

[00:01:35]Simple, right? Was were plus subject verb ing.

[00:01:42]Was I studying? Were you yawning?

[00:01:46]Was he running? Was she sleeping? And you know the rest.

[00:01:52]Okay, I have four sentences here for you. Let's do the first one together.

[00:01:59]The dog was barking.

[00:02:02]Bark is the sound.

[00:02:06]The dog was not wasn't barking.

[00:02:10]Was the dog barking?

[00:02:13]I want you to complete the next three sentences.

[00:02:18]And in sentence three, if someone honks their horn, it's this sound.

[00:02:26]Pause the lesson.

[00:02:31]Tess was looking at you.

[00:02:34]Tess wasn't looking at you.

[00:02:38]Was Tess looking at you?

[00:02:41]The truck was honking its horn.

[00:02:45]The truck wasn't honking its horn.

[00:02:48]Was the truck honking its horn?

[00:02:52]My mom was playing chess.

[00:02:55]My mom wasn't playing chess.

[00:02:59]Was my mom playing chess?

[00:03:02]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Grammatical structures done.

[00:03:06]That's kind of the boring part.

[00:03:08]Let's move on to why we use the past continuous.

[00:03:14]First, I want to start with the present continuous.

[00:03:18]You see my timeline and I have present.

[00:03:21]Now.

[00:03:23]Now, I am talking to you. You are listening to me.

[00:03:30]Mhm.

[00:03:31]It is raining.

[00:03:33]All.

[00:03:35]Now.

[00:03:38]Let's move this idea to the past.

[00:03:43]Let's choose the period 3:00 p.m.

[00:03:48]At 3:00 p.m., I was cleaning.

[00:03:52]During this period, I was cleaning.

[00:03:56]Last summer.

[00:03:58]Last summer, my kids were learning how to surf.

[00:04:03]During that period, my kids were learning how to surf.

[00:04:08]I called you at 9:00 last night. You didn't answer your phone.

[00:04:13]9:00? I was sleeping.

[00:04:16]This is true. I go to bed really, [laughter] really early. By 9:00, I'm out.

[00:04:24]You can see we use the past continuous when we are describing an action over a period of time. 3:00 p.m.

[00:04:34]Last summer. 9:00.

[00:04:37]Do we always need to say that period?

[00:04:41]No, sometimes it's already clear.

[00:04:46]Why did you leave the party early?

[00:04:49]My stomach was hurting. So, I decided to leave.

[00:04:54]In this case, it's clear we mean >> [snorts] >> at some point during the party.

[00:05:00]And the pronunciation of this word is stomach.

[00:05:04]Kuh kuh kuh sound. Stomach.

[00:05:09]I want you to think about this question for yourself.

[00:05:13]What were you doing yesterday at 6:00 p.m.?

[00:05:17]Let me know in the comments.

[00:05:21]Simultaneous actions. Yeah. Sometimes we can have multiple actions happening at the same time.

[00:05:29]In your grammar books, you might see the phrase simultaneous actions. This means at the same time.

[00:05:39]Simultaneous.

[00:05:42]Simultaneous.

[00:05:45]I was cooking while my son was doing his homework.

[00:05:49]Simple. We were both doing this at the same time.

[00:05:54]Tim and I were working while you and Jack were doing nothing.

[00:06:01]While I was trying to sleep, [music] my roommate was playing really loud music.

[00:06:07]Notice here, [music] I used while to connect two actions.

[00:06:12]This can be in the middle position or at the beginning. Both are perfect.

[00:06:20]Do I always need while?

[00:06:23]No.

[00:06:25]My computer was doing an update and it was making this really weird sound.

[00:06:30]Mhm.

[00:06:32]The plane was pitching.

[00:06:35]The plane was pitching because we were flying through a storm cloud.

[00:06:42]So, while is super common, but there are other options. Just remember two or more action at the same time.

[00:06:52]Simultaneous.

[00:06:54]Okay.

[00:06:54]Early in this lesson, I said, "Later, I have something special to give you that will really help you understand how this tense is used in real life."

[00:07:08]Let me show you. I put together a list of past continuous examples from different TED Talks.

[00:07:15]What's a TED Talk?

[00:07:16]TED Talks are educational or motivational speeches.

[00:07:21]I give you the link to the talk and the past continuous examples so you can watch and listen to this grammar in context.

[00:07:30]The link to download this PDF is in the video description.

[00:07:34]TED Talks use advanced English and it was really easy for me to find examples of the past continuous because they are so common.

[00:07:44]Today's lesson is about basic step-by-step grammar. But my PDF will give you real-life examples in context. That's always really helpful.

[00:07:57]So don't forget to download this before you leave YouTube today.

[00:08:02]The past continuous is an interrupted action.

[00:08:06]This is what usually happens.

[00:08:09]Past continuous the background action past simple the main action. Let's do a few examples.

[00:08:20]Ryan was walking down Elm Street when he slipped.

[00:08:26]The past continuous is interrupted by the past simple.

[00:08:32]What does interrupted mean? That's an important word.

[00:08:36]It means something stops another action.

[00:08:39]Maybe this interruption stops it forever or maybe the action continues after.

[00:08:47]That's not really important. The context will tell you. Just remember that there was an interruption.

[00:08:55]Mhm.

[00:08:56]I was talking to my boss >> [music] >> when my husband came into the room dancing.

[00:09:04]You can see the first action is interrupted by the second [music] action.

[00:09:10]We were filming the giraffes when one of them hit the other one.

[00:09:16]We see an interruption there. That was a surprise.

[00:09:20]Past continuous when past simple.

[00:09:22]Past continuous when past simple.

[00:09:25]Past continuous when past simple.

[00:09:27]Yes, we can change things around. That doesn't matter.

[00:09:32]When past simple past continuous.

[00:09:36]When Ryan slipped he was walking down Elm Street. That also works. In all of my examples, the past simple is the more interesting, important action.

[00:09:48][clears throat] It gives you the main information.

[00:09:51]The past continuous is just the background.

[00:09:56]I want to put this idea into a conversation, so you really see what I mean.

[00:10:03]Oh my god, what happened?

[00:10:06]I was walking down Elm Street and I slipped and twisted my ankle.

[00:10:12]You can see the past simple is the main focus.

[00:10:16]We can remove the past continuous and the conversation is still clear.

[00:10:22]What happened?

[00:10:23]Uh, I slipped and twisted my ankle.

[00:10:28]Now, imagine we remove the past simple.

[00:10:32]Oh my god, what happened?

[00:10:34]I was walking down Elm Street.

[00:10:42]You can see, it doesn't work. It's just the background.

[00:10:47]Let's do three more examples. I was driving down Maple Street when a cat ran out in front of me.

[00:10:55]My kids were playing hockey outside when I called them in for dinner.

[00:11:01]Everyone was having a good time when Jess and Adrian started arguing.

[00:11:09]There's a clear interruption.

[00:11:11]If a cat runs in front of your car, you stop driving.

[00:11:16]Usually.

[00:11:18]The kids stop playing. People stop having a good time.

[00:11:23]With all tenses in English, the rules are not set in stone.

[00:11:29]If something is set in stone, it means you cannot change it. Like, it's literally pushed into a stone.

[00:11:39]So, here's an example.

[00:11:42]I was living in France when I heard the news.

[00:11:46]Does this person stop living in France now?

[00:11:49]Mhm, we don't know.

[00:11:51]Is there an interruption?

[00:11:53]Not really.

[00:11:55]Just remember the past continuous and past simple are usually together.

[00:12:01]The past continuous is the background and the past simple is the main information.

[00:12:07]Mini review during a period. At 12:00, we were sitting by the pool.

[00:12:17]Simultaneous actions. We were sitting by the pool while the kids were swimming.

[00:12:24]It's very common to use while here.

[00:12:28]We were sitting by the pool when I got splashed.

[00:12:35]Here, it's very common to use when for an interruption.

[00:12:40]Okay, you know the past continuous is the background.

[00:12:45]This is really common when people want to tell a story and they want to give you the mood, the feeling before they begin the main story.

[00:12:56]If the past continuous were a person, he the storyteller.

[00:13:02]Because he always wants to give you the mood of the story.

[00:13:08]>> [music] >> It was a dark and cold winter morning.

[00:13:13]The snow was falling.

[00:13:16]The wind was howling and everyone was inside sleeping.

[00:13:22]But not Rob Hetherington.

[00:13:25]He wasn't sleeping.

[00:13:27]He knew something no one else knew.

[00:13:32]Okay. The past continuous is giving us the mood of the story just like a storyteller. Why don't I say it was being a dark and cold morning or he was knowing something?

[00:13:45]We're describing something over a period of time, right?

[00:13:49]Simultaneous actions?

[00:13:52]If you've been watching my series on the tenses, you know that we do not normally use stative verbs in continuous tenses.

[00:14:00]What are stative verbs? Stative verbs show us our thoughts or emotions.

[00:14:07]Know, believe, understand, like, hate.

[00:14:13]I was knowing?

[00:14:15]She was understanding?

[00:14:18]Here, use past simple.

[00:14:21]I knew.

[00:14:22]She understood.

[00:14:24]You can watch my full explanation on stative verbs in the present continuous part of the series.

[00:14:32]Write down forget to download your PDF of real life examples. I hope this lesson helped you with the past continuous. Keep watching my series on the tenses. My next video on the past perfect is coming out very >> [music] >> soon. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time. Bye.