ESL Grammar: PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE (2) – “during”

In this ESL grammar worksheet, students practice using the past continuous tense with phrases starting with “during.”

ESL Grammar: Using “During” with the Past Continuous Tense

“During” is used to specify the time frame within which an ongoing action occurred. It helps to link the past continuous action to a particular period or event. Here are some examples:

• I was reading a book during the storm.
• She was studying for her exams during the summer vacation.
• They were playing soccer during the school break.

Examples

• Affirmative: He was cooking dinner during the TV show.
• Negative: They were not listening to music during the meeting.
• Interrogative: What were you doing during the lecture?

The English grammar lesson below introduces how to construct past continuous tense sentences with the word “during” to talk about something that was happening over a specific period of time in the past. Our series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.

This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on advanced aspects of English grammar (past continuous tense, present perfect tense, present perfect continuous tense, passive voice, embedded questions, relative clauses) in our comprehensive, intermediate- to advanced-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 3: Tenses and More!).