Was he sleeping Neg. Were you not sleeping Werent you. Was he not working Wasnt he. The past continuous is formed with the past tense of the verb to be and the present participle ing form. See also how to make the past continuous in the passive voice. Use. We use this tense for activities or situations that were not completed. From 1. 0 to 1. 2 I was washing my car. I was in the garage. I did not finish my work. It was in progress. I started before 1. The sun was setting. The beach was changing its colours. The sun was still in the sky when I was watching it. Compare this sentence with completed actions From 1. I washed my car. I finished my work. I started at 1. 0 and finished at 1. Finally, the sun set. It was dark and we did not see the beach anymore. The sun completely disappeared. We use the past continuous for uninterrupted activities or situations. If the action is interrupted it is not continuous something is done in more intervals or we did more things one after another, we use the simple. Tom was watching TV on Sunday. Tom watched TV in the morning and in the evening. Yesterday I was working in the garden. Yesterday I worked in the garden and on my house. It is typically used 1. To express the idea that an action in the past continuous started before the action expressed by the past simple and continued after it. When she saw me, I was looking at the trees. These two actions happened at the same time. I was looking at the trees for some time and she saw me in the middle of it. Compare When she saw me, I looked at the trees. These two actions happened one after another. First she saw me and then I looked at the trees. With a point in time to describe an action that started before that time and continued after it. At 8 oclock Jane was doing her homework. At 8 oclock she was in the middle of the activity. She did not finish it. Compare At 8 oclock Jane did her homework. She started the activity at 8 oclock and finished it. It is used to describe a situation, while the simple is used to express actions in stories. The sun was shining. Jack and Jill were lying on the beach. Jack was reading a book and Jill was sleeping. All of a sudden, Jack raised his head. Jill woke up. Something happened. It describes an activity which was not finished in contrast with the simple past, which describes a completed activity. I was reading a book yesterday. And today I am going to continue. I read the book yesterday. I can lend it to you now. It can be used to show a more casual action, the simple is for a deliberate action I was talking to my neighbour yesterday. We had a nice chat. I did not do it on purpose. We just met in the street. I talked to my neighbour yesterday. And he promised to help me. I did it on purpose. I needed to ask him for help.