ENGR 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: The Past (Film)
Document Summary
The past continuous is formed by the past tense of the verbs to be + the present participle : Main uses of the past continuous tense : The past continuous is chiefly used for past action which continued for some time . Used without a time expression it can indicate gradual . development : It was getting darker the wind was rising . If we replace the time expression with a verb in the simple past tense : When i arrived tom was talking on the phone . We convey the idea that the action in the past continuous started before the action in the simple past and probably continued after it . We use the continuous tense in descriptions . Note the combination of description ( past continuous ) with narrative ( simple past ) : A wood fire was burning on the hearth , and a cat was sleeping.
