Form
Past continuous is formed be + ‘ing
I was looking through the window.
She was driving her sports car.
It was raining very hard.
The door was opening and closing all night.
We use past continuous for a longer action that was in progress when another shorter action happened
It was raining and I shut the window.
She was running the business when she discovered that Ralph was stealing her clients.
They were sitting on the plane when she said ‘hello’ and then they realised who she was.
We use past continuous for background information that is not part of the main story
I was walking to work, and a car drove through a puddle on the road next me.
The phone was ringing when I left the house.
He was talking about the match from yesterday when he realised that he forgot to lock the door when he lft home this morning.
Sequence of events
We use the past continuous to describe something that began before a particular point in the past and continues to that point or after.
She was knocking down the wall when the neighbour started to complain but as it was noisy she could not hear him. [and carried on knocking down the wall]
I was still giving class at 9pm. [and continued giving class after 9pm]
He was drunk crossing the road when the traffic strated to slow down. [still drunk crossing the road]
Interrupted past continuous
They were doing the presentation when there was a bang and the power went off. [the presentation stopped]
He was smiling cooking the vegan burger until the pan caught fire. [the smiling stopped]
We were contemplating which country to fly to when COVID started. [the contemplating stopped]
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How about you?
What were you doing when something else happened?