Welcome to this class on the past continuous
tense, which is also called the past progressive tense. Now, this class is part of the series created
by EngVid to help you learn and start using all of the English verb tenses one by one. So, the past continuous tense is used quite
often in English, so let's understand exactly when to use it and how to use it. Are you ready? Let's begin. So, when we want to talk about the past in
English, there are two basic tenses: the past simple and the past continuous. An example of the past simple is "I worked". An example of past continuous is "I was working". So, let's understand the difference. When we use the past simple, we are referring
to something that happened at a specific point in time, okay? It happened at a specific point in time in
the past. When we use past continuous, we're talking
about something that continued during a period in the past, okay? Here, we're just talking about the one action,
here, we're talking about the action that continued, how long it continued, and we want
to emphasize that, okay? Let's look at an example here with our timeline. So, let's say this is our timeline. This is now, and it's 8:00pm. It's 8:00 in the evening, alright? And let's say that in the past, before this,
you were working, okay? So, let's say you started work - let's say,
you could say "I started work at 9:00am." Started - I started, past simple. "I finished work at 5:00pm.", again, past
simple, because these are points, right? 9:00am is a point, 5:00pm is a point. I started, I finished, that's past simple. But, if you want to talk about this period
from 9:00am to 5:00pm, and you want to emphasize that it went on for some time, then you would
say "I was working from 9:00am to 5:00pm.", and this "I was working" is the past continuous,
alright? That's the basic explanation of it. Now, let's look at how we form it. So, we would use the subject + the past tense
of the verb "to be" as the helping verb, then a verb + -ing. For example, we would say: I was working. He was working. She was working. It was working. Then it changes a little bit, see here? You were working. We were working, and They were working. Alright? So, that's your basic overview of the past
continuous tense. Now, let's look at when we can use the past
continuous tense. So, we can use it to talk about an action
that was continuing during a period of time. For example: Sarah was studying all day. What's the period of time here in this sentence? All day. And where's our past continuous? Here: "was studying", okay? Next, we can also use this tense to talk about
an action that was continuing during a particular moment in the past. For example: At 11:00pm, I was sleeping. What's the moment in the past? 11:00pm. Where is our past continuous? Here, okay? So, when would you say something like that? Well, let's suppose somebody said "Oh, I tried
to call you last night, but you didn't answer." And you say, "What time?" and they said "Oh,
around 11:00." And you say "Oh, at 11:00pm, I was sleeping." Okay? Like that. Next, we can also use it to talk about an
action that was continuing when it was interrupted by another action. For example: They were having dinner when
we arrived. Now, this is an interesting sentence because
it actually has two past tenses. It has the past continuous: were having, right? This was continuing, they were having dinner,
having and having and having dinner when we arrived. So, this part here is that past simple. So, this action was continuing and then something
happened in the middle, but when you want to show that that something happened, you
want to show what was going on at that time, we use our past continuous. They were having dinner when we arrived. So, those are the three basic ways in which
we use this tense. But, there are a couple of advanced ways. Let me just explain to you what they are. So, we can also use it sometimes to talk about
an action that was planned. For example: I was planning to call John,
okay? I was thinking about it, I was planning to
call John, but I didn't have time. Okay? So, that means that, at some time in the past,
you were thinking about that. You were planning that, so that's where we
use that past continuous: I was planning to call John, but I didn't have time. I didn't have time is, once again, our past
simple, because that's just at a particular point, but the planning or the thinking continued
and was continuing and therefore we're using past continuous. You could also use this tense sometimes for
a polite request with a particular expression that we use in English to make a polite request,
and that expression is this one: I was wondering if you could help me. When we say, "I was wondering", that is past
continuous, alright, here, but it's just an expression that we use and it means, really,
you know, "Can you help me? Could you help me?", but it's a very polite
way of saying "I was wondering if you could help me." That means I was thinking about this, if you
could help me, alright? So, these are the basic ways in which we can
use this tense. Now, let's look at when not to use the past
continuous tense. So, in English, we have two kinds of verbs:
action verbs and stative verbs. Action verbs are verbs like work, study, run,
cook, clean, okay? And stative verbs describe some kind of state
or condition. It could be a mental state, an emotional state,
or something else. Let's look at some examples. Now, what's important is that with these stative
verbs, with many of the stative verbs, we cannot use them with this continuous tense
or any of the continuous tenses. Let's look at an example. It is wrong to say: I was knowing him for
many years. Because "know" is a stative verb which we
cannot use in this way. So, this is wrong. It is wrong to say, "Susan was hating spiders.",
because "hate" is one of those emotional stative verbs, and we cannot use it in the continuous
form. It is also wrong to use a verb which describes
ownership or possession or something that you have. For example, it's wrong to say, "They were
owning a big house.". We cannot say that, okay? Also, these two very common verbs, it's incorrect
to use them in the continuous form. "We were wanting to call you.", nope, we can't
say that. "She was needing to catch her flight.", no,
that's wrong, we cannot say that correctly, okay? Now, let's just go back for a second and look
at these. So, in this case, what would we use instead? We would have to just use the past simple. For example, we would say here: I knew him
for many years. She hated spiders. They owned a big house. We wanted to call you. She needed to catch her flight. Those are all examples of past simple. We cannot use these continuous forms here
with the stative verbs. There is one verb which is very interesting
and very common which you should be aware of, and that's the verb "to have". Now, "to have", sometimes has a stative meaning
and sometimes it has a more dynamic meaning, or action meaning. So, when it has a stative meeting, we cannot
use it in this tense or in any continuous tense, but when it has the other meaning,
then we can. Let's look at one example. It is wrong to say, "He was having a computer". No, we would have to say, "He had a computer.",
right? Past simple. But you could talk about something like this:
He was having a party. He was having a good time. He was having fun. This is okay. So, you have to pay attention to that verb
"to have", but what's the general take away here? Don't use stative verbs with this tense. Now, let's look at the structure of the past
continuous tense. So, we will look at it in a positive sentence,
a negative sentence, and a question. So, in the positive sentence, the basic way
we form this tense is we take the subject + the verb "to be" in the past tense, which
is going to be "was" or "were" + the verb + -ing. Let's look at how that works, okay? So, I, He, She, or It, we would say "was working". I was working. You can repeat it after me so you start to
get used to it. I was working yesterday. He was working. She was working. It was working. And here, we have to change the verb "to be",
so we say: You were working. We were working. They were working. Okay? So, it's not only important to remember this
verb +ing, the "working" part, which is not too difficult, but this part is also very
important. Make sure you're using the correct form of
that past tense of the verb "to be" with this tense, okay? Because if you make a mistake here, then you'll
make a mistake in the entire tense, so be careful of that. It is here: was, and here it is: were, okay? So, let's pay attention to that. Next, if it's a negative sentence, it's very
easy, we're just adding "not", okay? There is a way that we can shorten this and
we will look at that soon, but for now, all we're doing is we're saying this and we're
adding "not". For example: I was not working. He was not working. She was not working. It was not working. Or: You were not working. We were not working. They were not working. Okay? That's it. Next, to form a question, we have to change
the order. So, instead of saying "I was", we say "Was
I?". Instead of "He was", "Was he?", that's it. So, for example, "Was I working yesterday? I don't remember." Was he working? Was she working when you arrived? Was it working the last time you used it? Were you working? Were we working? Were they working? Okay? So, that's the structure of the question. Now remember that if you need to add a question
word, you can do that. What do I mean by a question word? For example, you could say "Where was he working?",
okay? So, if you need to add that question word
like, who, what, when, where, why, how often, how long, and so on, then you can do that,
just put it here before this, but keep this structure. Just put it before the "was", okay? And then, of course, you will not capitalize
this word "was". So: Where was he working? How long was he working? And so on, that's it. And this is the basic structure of the past
continuous tense. Now, let's look at how we use contractions
with the past continuous tense. So, contractions are when we shorten or contract
two or three words into one word. We're going to see how to do that in just
a second. The important thing for you to remember is
that in this tense, if it's a positive sentence, we cannot make any contractions, but if it's
negative, we definitely can. So, let's see how to do that. So, these are the possible negative contractions. If you wanted to say, "I was not", it becomes
"wasn't". I wasn't, alright? So, what happened here? How did we get this? We basically took these two words, we cancelled
the "o", we added an apostrophe in the place where we took out the letter and we joined
these two words together. So, "was not" became "wasn't", and "were not",
the other possibility, we do the same thing, we take out the "o", add the apostrophe, and
then "were not" becomes what? Weren't. Now, there are two things to remember about
these contractions. The first is how to spell them. The second is how to pronounce them. So, we're going to practice both in this section
of the lesson. So, when would we use which one? You've already gone over that a little bit,
so just repeat after me right now and try to make sure you're pronouncing all of this
word clearly, because if you are trying to say "I wasn't watching", but you don't say
the ending "tuh", then it'll sound like "I was watching", and that's the opposite meaning,
right? So, repeat after me: I wasn't watching. He wasn't watching. She wasn't watching. It wasn't watching. Now, for the second part, okay? A different word, different form of the verb
"to be": You weren't sleeping. Make sure you're saying that "tuh". You weren't sleeping. We weren't sleeping. They weren't sleeping. Okay? And that's basically it in terms of making
the contractions. Now, let's look at some of the spelling changes
we need to make in the main verb when using this tense. So, for most verbs, all we have to do is to
add -ing. For example: talk becomes talking. Sell - selling. With some verbs, you have to do something
a little bit different. For example, for verbs ending in "e", we have
to drop the "e" and add "-ing". We're always going to be adding -ing for all
the verbs, but sometimes you have to make some changes before that. For example, for those verbs ending in "e",
like "make" becomes "making", because we're dropping the "e", right? Take becomes taking without the "e". Next, for verbs ending in "ie", we have to
drop the "ie" and add "y" and then the "-ing". For example: tie becomes tying, alright? We added "y" and "-ing". Lie, get rid of "ie", add the "y" and
"-ing", lying. Tie - tying, lie - lying, alright? And for some verbs that end with a pattern
called C-V-C. C-V-C stands for consonant, vowel, consonant. A vowel in English is A, E, I, O, and U, and
a consonant is every other letter. So, for some verbs that follow this pattern
that end like this, we have to double the last letter. For example, what you need to do is to look
at this word from the end, because not every word will have only three letters, but always
look at the word from the end, okay? C-V-C, and if it follows that pattern, then
double the last letter and then add "-ing". For example: Jog becomes jogging. What does it mean to jog? To like, run for exercise. Sit becomes sitting. Alright? So, these are some of the main spelling changes
you need to make in this tense for the verbs. In English, when someone asks you a question,
we don't usually just say "Yes" or "No", because it sounds a little bit impolite. We can be a little bit more polite than that,
and I'm going to show you how. But also in English, when someone asks you
a question, you don't have to give a very long answer if, basically, your information
is "yes" or "no". So, I'm going to show you how to give short
answers that allow you to answer in a very polite way and an easy way. So, for example, in this tense, if someone
said "Was he playing video games?", then you could just say "Yes, he was.", if it's a positive
answer, or "No, he wasn't.". And how do you know that pattern? Well, in this case, all we had to do was take
the "was" from the question and use it in our answer, okay? Now, as you can see in the positive answer,
you cannot use any contraction because there isn't one, but in the negative one, the negative
answer, yes, do use the contraction, especially in informal conversation where we use these
kind of questions and answers, okay? So, just take your answer from the question
itself. Let's take another example. "Were they studying for the test?" So, you could say again, take your answer
from here: "Yes, they were.", or "No, they weren't.", okay? Make sure you you're saying "weren't", "wasn't",
okay? Make sure you're saying that ending, otherwise
the meaning changes, alright? Now, the only one that's different, the only
exception is for questions about you. So, if someone says, "Were you managing a
team?" Let's suppose you go for an interview, right? They're asking you many different kinds of
questions about your previous jobs, and they ask you "Were you managing a team?". So then, of course, you cannot say "were",
your answer will be "Yes, I was.", or "No, I wasn't". And because you are you and a lot of people
are going to ask you questions about you, it's good for you to memorize these, okay? Were you doing this? Yes, I was. No, I wasn't. Yes, I was. No, I wasn't. Okay? So, know these answers for yourself but for
anyone else, you can take the answer from the question itself. So, were you paying attention to this lesson? I hope you said "Yes, I was." Now, let's practice what you've been learning. So, what we'll do first is we will take some
sentences which, right now, are in the present continuous, and we're going to change them
to the past continuous. For example: I am learning. How would you say that in the past continuous,
which we've been learning? What would it become? "I am" becomes "I was learning.", okay? I was learning. We are waiting. What does that become? We were waiting, okay? Very good. He is singing, in the present, becomes what
in the past? In the past continuous, we say "He was singing.",
okay? Very good. Now, for these, these are already in the past
continuous, but we're going to - right now, they're positive sentences. We're going to change them into negative sentences. So, let's start with the first one: Ruby was
teaching. How would we make it negative? It would be "was", what's the key word? "not" teaching, okay? Ruby was not teaching. Number five: Simon was winning. Make it negative and this time, we'll try
to make a contraction. Simon - yes - wasn't winning. Okay? Simon wasn't winning. We were driving. Make it negative and a contraction. We weren't, okay, pay attention to the spelling
also, we weren't driving, okay. Great. Let's look at number seven. Now, we're going to make a question. Right now, it's a sentence: Steven was going
to the conference. So, I want you to help me make a question
starting with the question word "where". Steven was going to
the conference. Where was Steven going? Okay? Very good. And number eight, same thing: She was doing
her homework. What does that become? Let's start the question with the word "what". What was she doing? Right? Because what are we doing with the questions? We're changing that order. She was - was she? Steven was - was Steven? Okay? So, you've done a lot of practice, very good! Now, let's look at some common mistakes that
are made with this tense, and you can help me correct them. So, sometimes the wrong tense is used. For example, this student wrote "I am studying
when you called." So, what should it be? "I am studying" is the present continuous,
but that's not what we need, we need the past continuous, so this one should be "I was". I
was studying, right? I was studying when you called. Alright. Sometimes, the mistake is with the verb "to
be". For example, this person wrote "We was relaxing." They got this part right, but is this right? No. What's the correct form? We should say "We were relaxing.", okay? Good. Sometimes, there are spelling mistakes. For example: "She was bakeing a cake." Do remember what we do when we have a verb
which is like this: bake, it ends with an "e", so we need to cancel the "e" before we
add "-ing". Good. Sometimes, there's a problem with the word
order. You might have all the right words, but not
in the right order. For example: "When you were going to call?" that's not right. What should it be? "When were you going to call?", okay? Sometimes, words are missing. For example: "You waiting a long time?" What should it be? This is a question, so which word goes first? Goes here, it should be "Were you". "Were you waiting a long time?", not just
"you waiting". Were you waiting a long time? Okay? Good. Let's look at another example where there
are missing words. "He talking to a client." Let's suppose this is in the past continuous. What's missing? Again, the verb "to be", that helping verb,
we need that, so it should be "He was talking to a client.", okay? Now it's correct and of course, we have to
remember that, with this tense, we can't use many of the stative verbs. So, this student made a mistake and said,
"I was believing you.", but "believe" is one of those stative verbs, so we just cannot
use it in this tense. So, we would have had to say, "I believed
you.", which is just past simple. We cannot use this word with the continuous
form. So, these are some of the main mistakes you
should be careful of. So, congratulations! You have just learned when to use this tense,
when not to use this tense, and also how to use this tense. You've learned how to make a positive sentence,
a negative sentence, and also a question. For example, you know you to say, "Robert
was driving.", or "Robert wasn't driving", or "Was Robert driving?", okay? And when you can do that, it means that you
can move comfortably between different kinds of sentences and different kinds of usages
of this tense, alright? Now, I've written on the board a few other
questions you might hear people saying and asking that use this tense and which you could
also start using. For example: "What were you doing yesterday?",
or "Where were you going?", or "Who were you talking to?", okay? You might hear these kinds of questions and
they are, in fact, using this tense which you have just learned, okay? And to practice it a little bit more, I suggest
you write something about your day. What were you doing yesterday? Write some of those things down and you'll
find that you're using this tense and it's quite useful, alright? Where do you go from here? Once you're comfortable with this tense, then
you can go on to watch the next tense in our series, which is the future simple tense,
alright? And if you'd like to practice this one a little
bit more, you can go to www.engvid.com and do a quiz on this, alright? Congratulations again, and all the best with
your English.
