I was reading all night.      (...when the murder was happening.)

Now...Was that easy, or what?


And the Negative?
Of course, the negative form is easy for you now.

S + WASN"T/WEREN'T + V + ING
You weren’t reading all night.

Question?
Of course, the question form is also easy for you now.

(QW) + WAS/WERE + S + V + ING
What were you doing at nine o'clock?

Weren't those easy?  Now, we've got three ways of putting the time into Past Continuous.
1. Words
2. Time Phrases
3. Time Clauses

1. WORDS like: yesterday, last night, Sunday
I was drinking wine yesterday.

2. Time Phrases like:  on the weekend   before Christmas 
They were studying Spanish last summer.  

3. Time Clauses ---
Words like WHEN and WHILE let you know the whole clause will be setting the time for the main sentence.
WHEN they went to Mexico,
they were traveling cheaply.
WHILE the house was burning,
we were eating bread and fruit."

And these time clauses work the same way with sentences in other tenses as well. Note that Time Clauses can be at the beginning or the end of the whole sentence.

WHEN you drink wine, you need friends around.
We will be studying travel books WHILE we are flying there.

Had enough?


End Lesson R


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