The past continuous tense is used in a sentence to represent an action that was going on in the past. In other words, it shows the progress of the action or event at a specific time in the past. 

Structure of past continuous tense sentence:

Subject + was/were + present participle (verb+ing) + the rest of the sentence

Examples:

• Jacob was talking to his class teacher when we were leaving home.
• The whole gang was laughing at the joke told by the comedian.
• Alfred was watching the new movie that was released yesterday.
• The children were playing when the teacher entered the class.

When do we use past continuous tense?

• To convey parallel or simultaneous actions happening in the past
• To speak about an overlapping action.
• To emphasize an action or event that was taking place at some point in the past.
• To give details about the background of a story.

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