Tenses · CEFR A2 · Everyday
Past Continuous — English tenses
Something that was in progress when another thing happened.
The shape
was / were + verb-ing
Set the scene for a story.
In Hindi
कोई काम चल ही रहा था, तभी दूसरी बात हुई।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
I was go to the market. | I was going to the market. After was/were the verb takes -ing. |
Past Continuous examples
Easiest first. Every sentence is authored, with the Hindi it comes from.
I was waiting for you.
मैं तुम्हारा इंतज़ार कर {रहा|रही} {था|थी}।
It was raining outside.
बाहर बारिश हो रही थी।
He was waiting for me there.
वह वहाँ मेरा इंतज़ार कर रहा था।
The children were playing outside.
बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे थे।
We were eating at that time.
हम उस समय खाना खा रहे थे।
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
- Past SimpleA1Tell somebody what happened yesterday
- Telling a storyB1Tell what happened without losing your listener
Questions people ask
- What is the past continuous used for?
- Something that was in progress when another thing happened. In practice: set the scene for a story.
- How do you form the past continuous?
- was / were + verb-ing.
- What is the most common mistake with the past continuous?
- Saying “I was go to the market.” instead of “I was going to the market.”. After was/were the verb takes -ing.
Where past continuous fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
Past Continuous is a CEFR A2 structure — the everyday band — and it belongs to tenses. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the past continuous →