Past Continuous Reference Guide
A one-page past continuous explanation with clear timeline diagrams, form guidance, time expressions and example sentences.
What’s in the worksheet?
- Clear visual timeline diagrams
- Form and use explained concisely
- Useful time words and example sentences
- One-page printable reference
Explain past actions in progress and their relationship to another event. The diagrams show watching television at a past time and cooking when the phone rang.
Worksheet preview
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Page 1 of 1 · A4 printable PDF
A simple way to teach it
Before the lesson
Print or display the single A1-A2 reference page. There are no gap fills or answer-key pages; review was and were before adding -ing.
- Locate the past reference time and now. Identify the longer cooking activity and the shorter phone event.
- Read the four examples and build was / were + verb-ing. Compare the negative with What were you doing at nine?
- Ask pairs to describe an imaginary activity at a chosen time yesterday. Add a second event only after the in-progress meaning is clear.
Support and extension
Support with a simple clock timeline. Extend by describing a background action and a past event without assuming that every when-clause describes an interruption.
Suggested approach. Adjust the pace and number of questions to suit your class.
