1: An action in the past which
overlaps another action or a time. The action in the past continuous starts
before and often continues after the other shorter action or time.
I was walking to the station when I met John. (I started
walking before I met John, and maybe I continued afterwards.)
At three o'clock, I was working. (I started before three
o'clock and finished after three o'clock.)
2: In the same way, we can use the
past continuous for the background of a story. (We often use the past simple
for the actions.) This is really a specific example of Use 1.
The birds were singing, the sun was shining and in the cafés
people were laughing and chatting. Amy sat down and took out her phone.
3: Temporary habits or habits that
happen more often than we expect in the past. We often use 'always',
'constantly' or 'forever' here. This is the same as the way we use the present
continuous for habits, but the habit started and finished in the past. This
thing doesn't happen now.
He was always leaving the tap running.
She was constantly singing.
4: To emphasise that something lasted
for a while. This use is often optional and we usually use it with time
expressions like 'all day' or 'all evening' or 'for hours'.
I was working in the garden all day.
He was reading all evening.
Remember you can't use this tense
or any continuous tense with stative verbs.
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