Past Continuous · Exercises
C1Advanced practice
Plans seen from the past, polite requests and the passive.
Play
- Practice10 exercises at your own pace
- Time Attack60 seconds, as many as you can
- Survival3 lives, harder as you go
- Tense SortDrag sentences into their tense — 60 seconds
- Timelines10 sentences to match to their timelines
- C1 Boss12 hits before you lose 3 lives
- Irregular MatchPair verbs with their past forms — 60 seconds
Want to mix tenses, go endless or pick exercise types? Set up your own session.
What you’ll practise at C1
- Negatives: wasn’t / weren’t
- Questions: Were you…?
- Interrupted actions: when + past simple
- while and background in stories
- Past continuous or past simple?
- State verbs (knew, wanted…)
- Annoying habits: was always + -ing
- Plans seen from the past (was leaving…)
- Polite requests: I was wondering if…
- Passive: was being done
- Timelines: what the tense means
Need a refresher? Learn the past continuous: rules, tables and audio examples.
Sample exercises
A taste of what’s inside. In practice mode every exercise is freshly generated.
Write the verb in the past continuous.
The students couldn’t help us because they _____ (play) tennis with a friend the following week.
Show answer
The students couldn’t help us because they were playing tennis with a friend the following week.
Seen from a moment in the past, a fixed plan uses the past continuous (the past of “I’m flying tomorrow”).
Write the verb in the past simple or past continuous.
When the alarm clock went off, the new student _____ (switch) it off.
Show answer
When the alarm clock went off, the new student switched it off.
An immediate reaction to an event is a completed action: past simple (When the phone rang, she answered it).
Turn the sentence into a question.
Aisha was saving money when the storm started.
Show answer
Was Aisha saving money when the storm started?
Questions: Was / Were + subject + -ing. Was Aisha saving money?
Complete the sentence.
The children couldn’t help us because they _____ (have) lunch with an old friend the next week.
Show answer
The children couldn’t help us because they were having lunch with an old friend the next week.
Seen from a moment in the past, a fixed plan uses the past continuous (the past of “I’m flying tomorrow”).
Choose the correct form.
When the cat jumped onto the table, our neighbour _____ (carry) a big suitcase.
Show answer
When the cat jumped onto the table, our neighbour was carrying a big suitcase.
The longer action in progress uses the past continuous (was / were + -ing); the short action that interrupts it uses the past simple, often after “when”.
Write the verb in the past continuous.
Kofi couldn’t help us because he _____ (pick) up his grandmother from the airport the next day.
Show answer
Kofi couldn’t help us because he was picking up his grandmother from the airport the next day.
Seen from a moment in the past, a fixed plan uses the past continuous (the past of “I’m flying tomorrow”).