Conjugation and verb forms of the past continuous

Table of contents – formation past progressive

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Formation of the past continuous

The past continuous (also known as past progressive) is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in the simple past, which is ‘was/were’, and adding the progressive form (ing form or present participle) of the respective main verb. Compare the following examples as well as the table:

Examples showing the formation of the past continuous:
- “He was reading a book when the telephone rang.”
- “At five o’clock this morning, my neighbours were talking very loudly.”

Verb forms of the past continuous

Example verb: ‘to drive’

Positive/affirmative sentences

Person/pronoun	Positive	Short form	Interrogative form	Short form of question
I	I was driving.	–	Was I driving?	–
you (singular)	You were driving.	–	Were you driving?	–
he/she/it	He was driving.	–	Was he driving?	–
we/you/they	We were driving.	–	Were we driving?	–

Negative sentences

Person/pronoun	Negative	Short form	Interrogative form	Short form of question
I	I was not driving.	I wasn’t driving.	Was I not driving?	Wasn’t I driving?
you (singular)	You were not driving.	You weren’t driving.	Were you not driving?	Weren’t you driving?
he/she/it	He was not driving.	He wasn’t driving.	Was he not driving?	Wasn’t he driving?
we/you/they	We were not driving.	We weren’t driving.	Were we not driving?	Weren’t we driving?

Further explanations related to the ‘Formation of the past progressive’

The following explanations are related to the topic ‘Conjugation and verb forms of the past continuous (the past progressive tense in English)’ and could be interesting for you too:

Conjugation & verb forms of the past continuous

(Formation of the past progressive tense in English)