Past continuous 📕

We use the past continuous for an action that was in progress at a time in the past.

At eight o'clock yesterday, I was eating dinner.

Form: was / were + verb-ing

Past continuous + past simple

We often use the two tenses together. The long action is in the past continuous. The short action that interrupts it is in the past simple.

I was cooking when the phone rang.

While we were walking home, it started to rain.

Two actions at the same time

She was reading while he was watching TV.

Negative and questions

I wasn't sleeping.

What were you doing at ten o'clock?

✗ When I was arriving, she was cooking.

✓ When I arrived, she was cooking.