#6 Past continuous (I was doing)

S + be(past) + V-ing

過去のことについて話すとき、動作の最中であり、まだ完了していない場合に使う。
例：昨日10時から11時までテニスをしていた→I was playing tennis at 10:30 yesterday.
●What were you doing at 8 pm last night?
●They were living in America when I was born.
●Mother brought a cup of coffee but the son wasn't studying, he was playing the video game.

Past continuous (I was doing) VS past simple (I did)

●Past continuous: その動作の最中
◎Past simple: その動作は完了している

●I was walking to school when I saw her.
◎I walked to school because my bike was broken.
●He was watching TV when we visited.
◎He watched TV after work last night.

Past simple + past continuous

ある出来事が何かの最中に起こったことを言うときにI was doingとI didを同時に使うことがよくある。
●He got the mail whine we were having dinner.
●It was snowing when I opened the window.
●I saw you at the gym yesterday. You were running and drinking water.

※一つの出来事のあとに別の出来事が起こった場合はpast simpleを用いる。
●I was running with my dog when I saw my friend. So I stopped, and we had a chat.

◎When father came back home, we were having dinner. (=父が帰宅する前に既に夕食を始めていた)
◎When father came back home, we had dinner. (=父が帰宅し、そして夕食にした)

**like / want / need / prefer

know / realize / suppose / mean / understand / believe / remember
belong / fit / contain / consist / seem**

上記のような動詞は基本的にはcoutinuousの形では使われない。
●We were good friends. We knew each other well. (×we were knowing)
●I was enjoying the party, but my daughter wanted to go home. (×was wanting)