Past Continuous in English - revision exercise 1.

Choose from the two options in brackets and write the correct answer in the space. (You can also listen to the English example sentences for intonation and pronunciation practice.)

The English past continuous has a compound form (more than one part to the verb form). Past continuous uses an auxiliary verb, the verb 1) (to be / to have) in the past and a present participle, 2) (verb with ing / verb with ed) :

I was watching television. ...
He was coming home. ...
We were going to the cinema. ...

To make a question in past continuous, we invert the auxiliary and the 3) (object / subject) :

Was I watching television? ...
4) (Was / Were) he coming home? ...
Were we going to the cinema? ...

The 5) (affirmative / negative) form uses "not" after the auxiliary: "was not", "were not". These are usually contracted in spoken or informal written English:

I wasn't watching television. ...
He wasn't coming home. ...
We 6) (wasn't / weren't) going to the cinema. ...

Past continuous is usually used with:

a) the past 7) (simple / perfect) or
b) another past continuous sentence.

Past continuous often expresses an action which was 8) (followed / interrupted) by another action. This second action is in the past simple form:

I was having a bath when the phone 9) . (was ringing / rang)  ...
The student was doing her homework when her mother came in. ...
John and Mary were playing tennis when it started to rain. ...

We can see that the past continuous talks about 10) (unfinished / finished) actions in the past. Look at this next sentence:

John and Mary were sleeping in bed when suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. ...

Whether John and Mary continued sleeping or whether they heard the knock is 11) . (unknown / known)