Talking about the past (2)

The tense of a verb tells us when the action was done. The action can be done in the past, present or future.

When do I use the past tense?
There are many ways of talking about the past in English, but the two main ones are the simple past and the continuous past.

Use the past continuous form of a verb when you want to talk about a long action that carried on in the past. The continuous past is often used to describe what people were doing when something else happened.
e.g. I was kicking the ball when Dave broke his arm.
He was walking the dog when I saw George.

The past continuous is made by having was, or were + the verb + 'ing'.