Past Continuous in Action

Quick Grammar Reminder

We use the Past Continuous to talk about actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past.

• Form: Was / Were + Verb-ing

• Key words: While (بينما) / When (عندما)

Vocabulary

• While: بينما

• Suddenly: فجأة

• Carefully: بعناية / بحذر

• Bark: ينبح (للكلب)

• Drop: يُسقط / يوقع

• Repair: يصلح

Exercise 1: Past Simple or Past Continuous?

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Choose between the Past Simple (short, finished action) and the Past Continuous (long, ongoing action).

1. While I ______________________ (cook) dinner, the phone ______________________ (ring).

2. Amina ______________________ (walk) to school when it suddenly ______________________ (start) to rain.

3. They ______________________ (play) football when the referee ______________________ (blow) the whistle.

4. I ______________________ (drop) my glass while I ______________________ (wash) the dishes carefully.

5. The dog ______________________ (bark) while the mechanic ______________________ (repair) the car.

Exercise 2: Complete the Sentences

Put the verbs in brackets into the Past Continuous tense.

1. At 8:00 PM yesterday, Youssef ______________________ (study) for his English exam.

2. We ______________________ (not watch) TV at midnight; we were sleeping.

3. What ______________________ you ______________________ (do) when I called you this morning?

4. The children ______________________ (play) in the garden all afternoon.

5. She ______________________ (write) an email to her teacher when the power went out.

Exercise 3: Make it Negative and Interrogative

Rewrite the following positive sentence into a negative sentence and a question.

Example: He was reading a book.

• Negative: He wasn't reading a book.

• Question: Was he reading a book?

Your turn:

Sentence: "The students were listening to the teacher."

• Negative (-): _______________________________________________________________

• Question (?): _______________________________________________________________

Exercise 4: Sentence Correction

Each sentence has one mistake. Find the mistake and write the correct sentence below.

1. We was watching a very good film yesterday at 9 PM.
   _______________________________________________________________

2. While Sarah was clean her room, she found her lost ring.
   _______________________________________________________________