The Past Continuous Tense

Where were you living a year ago? Where were you working ten years ago? How much studying were you doing last weekend? These are all examples of the past continuous which is used to describe continuous activities in the past. You can't use if for everything, and sometimes the simple past tense is good enough, but try not to confuse if with other tenses.

To make the past continuous: Subject + (be: was or were) + ______ing. The main verb is in the simple form--represented by the the big blank space--and you add "ing" to that. Here are some examples:

She wasn't having much fun at the party, so she went home early.

I tried calling you last night but you didn't answer. What were you doing?

I was living in Chicago in the 1990s at the same time that Barack Obama was living there.

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