Past continuous You use the past continuous tense to talk about something that occurred in the past. Past continuous tense is used when the action you’re talking about started before the moment you’re describing, but had not finished. For example, in past tense, you might say: ‘I watched a film on TV yesterday. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.’ When we use the past continuous we say: ‘At 8pm yesterday I was watching TV.’ The past continuous can be used to say that something happened in the middle of something else. For example, in past tense, you might say: ‘I cooked dinner yesterday. My sister called me.’ When we use the past continuous we say: ‘I was cooking dinner when my sister called.’ Flickr CC: Dwight Sipler