Past Continuous in real stories
Something already going on when the story arrives. It sets the scene, and it is almost always the sentence the action interrupts.
- Form
- was/were + verb-ing
- Use
- An action that was happening at a particular time in the past.
18 sentences, 18 different stories
One example per story, so this is the tense across the shelf and not one tale retold.
A Hare was one day making fun of a Tortoise for being so slow upon his feet.
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE →"May we ask," said they, "what you were doing with yourself all last summer?
THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANTS →So Henny-penny and Cocky-locky went to tell-the king the sky was falling.
HENNY-PENNY →On ran Johnny-cake, and by-and-by he came to two ditch-diggers who were digging a ditch. “Where ye going, Johnny-cake?” said they.
JOHNNY-CAKE →And while they were walking, a little old Woman came to the house.
THE STORY OF THE THREE BEARS →So the little pig went off before the time as usual, and got to the fair, and bought a butter-churn, which he was going home with, when he saw the wolf coming.
THE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS →An old mouse was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carrying peas and beans to her family in the wood.
PETER RABBIT →A gig was coming along the road; it was driven by Mr.
BENJAMIN BUNNY →Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child.
LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD] →He travelled all over the world in hopes of finding such a lady; but there was always something wrong.
THE REAL PRINCESS →An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work.
THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS →Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.
THE FROG-PRINCE →The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high, the woman said: ‘Now, children, lay yourselves down by the fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood.
HANSEL AND GRETEL →The sun was shining into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady.
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK →The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there. “What!” thought he again. “Is it possible that I am a simpleton?
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES →But one day he came into her room, where she was sitting playing with her baby, and put her in mind of it.
RUMPELSTILTSKIN →It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window.
SNOWDROP →To the feast was asked, among the rest, Snowdrop’s old enemy the queen; and as she was dressing herself in fine rich clothes, she looked in the glass and said: ‘Tell me, glass, tell me true!
Snow White (part 2) →
Read them where they live
Every sentence above comes from a story on this site, free to read, with the audio and a tap on any word for its meaning. The grammar is easier to keep once you have met it in something you wanted to read anyway.