How do you form and use the past continuous tense?

The past continuous tense is a verb tense used to describe an action that was ongoing or in progress at a specific point in the past. To form the past continuous tense, you need to use the auxiliary verb "was" or "were" (depending on the subject) and the present participle form (-ing) of the main verb. Here is the formula: Subject + was/were + present participle (-ing) + rest of the sentence Examples: I was studying for my exam last night. They were watching a movie when the power went out. She was cooking dinner while her husband was doing the dishes. He was sleeping when the phone rang. In each of these examples, the action was ongoing at a specific point in the past. "Studying", "watching", "cooking" and "sleeping" are the main verbs in their base form, and "was" or "were" plus "-ing" is added to create the past continuous tense. The past continuous tense is often used in conjunction with the simple past tense to describe a past event that was interrupted by another action. In this case, the past continuous tense describes the ongoing action that was interrupted by the simple past action. Example: I was studying for my exam when my friend called me. (ongoing action of studying was interrupted by the simple past action of receiving a phone call) Overall, the past continuous tense is useful for describing ongoing actions that occurred in the past and can be used in a variety of contexts, from narrating events to expressing past habits and routines.