Grammar is a guide good book that helps us form a correct pattern in reading, writing, and speaking. For that reason, we need grammar for IELTS. Here in this lesson, we’re going to talk about “Pat Continuous Uses.” Please keep in mind that you are not supposed to get a high band score unless you improve your grammar. So, learn and practice.
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Past Continuous Uses
First, see the given below structures and examples:
| was/were + verb + -ing | She was reading the newspaper. |
| was/were not + verb + -ing | They weren’t reading the newspaper. |
| was/were… + verb + -ing | Were you reading the newspaper? |
Where is the past continuous used?
Past continuous is used
to provide the background scene to an action or event (usually in the past simple. We often use words like when, whiel and as:
Examples:
- It happened at five in the afternoon while she was reading the newspaper in the office.
2. He was doing his homework in his bedroom when the burglar came into the house.
In the above example no. 2
“the burglar came into the house” is past simple, and “he was doing his homework” is the background scene.
Note: It is possible to have more than one background scene happening at the same time. For example, he was listening to music and working on his computer.
when we want to emphasize the activity without focusing on its completion:
Comapre the sentenecs below:
For a while last eyar I was working at the cinema, studying for my degree and writing a column for the local newspaper. We don’t know if the actions were completed or not, or whether thet happened at the same time)
Last year I worked at the cinema, studied for my degree and wrote a column for the local newspaper. ( suggests all of the jobs are now complete, and probably happened in that order)
Note: State verbs (See lesson #3) do not generally have a continuous form.
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