Past Continuous

• We use the past continuous to talk about actions in progress at a specific time in the past. We often use it with the past simple to show that one event interrupted another.
• Subject
• Was / Were
• Verb + -ing
• Example
• I / He / She / It
• was
• working
• I was working at midnight.
• You / We / They
• were
• checking
• They were checking the logs.
• I / He / She / It
• was not (wasn't)
• responding
• He wasn't responding to alerts.
• You / We / They
• were not (weren't)
• monitoring
• You weren't monitoring the server.
• Remember
• Use was/were + verb-ing to describe an action that was in progress in the past.
• Use 'while' with the past continuous for the longer action.
• Use 'when' with the past simple for the short action that interrupted it.
• For negatives, use was not (wasn't) or were not (weren't).
• Examples
• At 3 AM, the server was working.
• We were downloading the logs when the system crashed.
• I was sleeping when my phone rang.
• Common mistakes
• We was working when the server crashed.
• We were working when the server crashed.
• I checked the logs while he was restore the backup.
• I checked the logs while he was restoring the backup.

Complete the sentences

• At 10 PM yesterday, Jessica (check) ____ the traffic.
• They (not sleep) ____ when the server went down.
• While Mark was restoring the database, he (notice) ____ an error.
• What (be) ____ you doing when the alert came?
• I (write) ____ a report when suddenly the power went off.
• The system (not run) ____ when the team arrived.

Sources: photo by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels