Is it really possible not to confuse tenses in English grammar? Why are there so many of them?
How not to ask such questions when learning this language. But let's think about it: the English don't even suppose that when learning Russian they will have to face conjugation - an assistant in choosing the right ending in words. And in the past tense another grammatical feature appears - gender. What is the difference between "I said" and "I spoke"? So foreigners can only sympathize. But we will not be discouraged and will deal with the time table that everyone hates.
Waiting for us is Past Continuous. It is used when it is necessary to show the duration of the process in the past. It's translated by imperfect verbs.
Tom was pumping up his bike wheels from 9 am to 10 am. - Tom was pumping up his bike wheels from 9 am to 10 am. (Here the duration of the action during a certain moment is important)
We were stacking woods in our yard the whole evening. - We were stacking woods in our yard the whole evening.

To correctly construct a sentence in Past Continuous, we need an auxiliary verb in the past tense + V-ing (Present Participle). Let's look at the table:

The merging of the ending -ing with the verb
In other words, this is the English Present Participle formation. We learn how to correctly add a long ending to the base. In most cases there are no difficulties: break - breaking, watch - watching, but there are some exceptions:

1. If the verb is rolled on the vowel -e, which is not pronounced, it falls out when changing.
Move - moving
Take - taking
Hide - hiding

2. If the word ends in -ee, only -ing is added.
See - seeing
Fee - feeing

3. The -y at the end of the word is retained
Pay - paying
Play - playing
Cry - crying

4. The combination -ie is changed to y
Lie - lying
Tie - tying
Die - dying

5. A consonant at the end is doubled if it is preceded by a stressed vowel sound.
Plan - planning
Run - running
Occur - occurring

6. It is not doubled if it is preceded by a long or unstressed vowel sound.
Read - reading
Clean - cleaning

7. <X> and <W> do not change quantitatively
Relax - relaxing
Fix - fixing
Grow - growing
Snow - snowing

8. <L> is always doubled if it is preceded by a short accented sound.
Compelling
But if <L> is preceded by an unstressed or long vowel sound, then American and British grammar rules are different.
British variant: feel - feelling
American version: feel - feeling

9. <ic> at the end changes to <ick>.
Panic - panicking
The choice of auxiliary verb depends on the person who did the action:
I/you/we/they - boldly choose have.
He/she/it (third person singular) - in this case has.
They have met for three times this month.
She has bought a present for Christmas.

The statement follows a very simple scheme:
Person/subject + was/were + semantic verb with -ing

Let's practice:
They were preparing for their exam all day long.
My cat (it) was sharpening its claws for 10 minutes nonstop.

The particle not is necessary to formulate negation in the Past Progressive. You can't do without it. It is placed after auxiliary words.

Let's take a look at the scheme:
Person/subject + was/were + not + semantic verb with -ing

Let's practice:
Her sister was not watching cartoons because Dad didn't allow it.
They were not practicing guitar a lot during this semester.
In colloquial speech, the abbreviated form "Past Continius" is used.
Her sister wasn't watching cartoons because Dad didn't allow it.
They weren't practicing guitar a lot during this semester.

It is not difficult to ask a general question in Past Continuous. To do this, you should put was/were in the front of the sentence.
They were traveling by car across the Asia. (statement)
Were they traveling by car across the Asia? (Take out the auxiliary word at the beginning and you get a question.)
He wasn't greeting the delegation of scientists. (negation)
Was he greeting the delegation of scientists?

And let's answer our questions right away.
Were they traveling by car across the Asia? - Yes, they were.
Was he greeting the delegation of scientist? - No, he wasn't.

Special ones are formed with the help of question words.
Who was making short videos? This is a question to the subject.
Why was she working at her office at 3 o'clock?
What were you dreaming of yesterday?
When were they walking last time?
Note that the subject separates the auxiliary and main verbs.

These words give us a clue, indicating which grammatical tense we are looking at.

At 7 am yesterday, at the same time yesterday
You were listening music and dancing around 5 pm yesterday. I saw you.

From ... to
Children were playing games from 3 pm to 6 pm at home.

Union while
Bob was watching an interesting movie at the cinema while Kate was eating in the cafe.

All day/all night
Dogs were barking all night long.

The whole time
Susan's dress was lying in her wardrobe the whole time. Then she decided to wear it.

This morning 7:20
What was Mr. Dugan doing this morning 6:30? It was so early.

Union When
I was cleaning my shoes when my mom came. She was really surprised.

The prepositions For and During
Our family was relaxing during this weekend.
They were making pavement for a month last year.
During is used only with nouns and names a period (during a party), for conveys a quantitative indicator (for 2 hours).

Now let's take a closer look at the circumstances under which we will refer to the Past Progressive. You should know that English speakers talk about the past by separating short-term episodes and long-term processes. Be sure to remember, if you want to emphasize duration, use the Continuous line.

Let's move on to the cases of Past Progressive usage:
1. The event took place at a specific moment in the past. In this case, counselors at 3 o'clock, at 7 pm yesterday, this morning 5:40.
Jacob wasn't sleeping at 5 am this morning.
Her friends were repairing a car at 4 o'clock yesterday.

2. The action continued for a while, but was interrupted by another, short-term action. The clearest indicator of this usage would be the conjunction when.
I was sunbathing on my house's roof when you interrupted me.
Ted was trying to tie shoelaces when I came.

3. The two processes happened at the same time. It is important that they did not break off, but ran parallel to each other.
Waves were crashing on the rocks while I was walking along the beach.

4. Often this construction is used in stories about the past to make the interlocutors feel the atmosphere and become fully involved in the events.
The weather was amazing. My sister and I were enjoying the sunset, our grandpa was reading a newspaper, Dad was watching football on TV, and our poor Mom was cooking.

5. Used to describe uncharacteristic or annoying situations that have happened before. In this case, use special, emphasizing words always - always, often - often, constantly - constantly.
He was always doing something wrong as I remember.
She was keeping silent almost constantly at work meetings, but my boss wanted her to speak. (If a person is asked to speak and he keeps silent all the time, it is annoying.)

6. To translate from direct speech to indirect speech. To convey thoughts in your own words, not exactly in your own words.
"What are you reading now, Alison?" asked Mr. Brown. (Direct speech in Present Continuous)

For transition to indirect speech it is correct to follow the principle of harmonization of tenses: Present Continuous - Past Continuous. The quotation marks are also omitted.
Mr. Brown asked Alison what she was reading then.
Note the change of pronouns and adverbs: you - she, now - then, here - there.
Another example:
George said, "I am staying here."
George said, that he was staying there.

Difficulties occur when we want to talk about a long activity but cannot use Past Continuous because some verbs are not used with this tense. These are so-called state words describing thought processes: to think, mean, understand, forget, remember; expressing opinion, feeling, emotion: to agree, suppose, need, notice, hear, hear, want, hurt, taste, smell, smell, smell; indicating belonging: to own, have, belong, relate. Past Simple is used in place of Past Continuous with these words.
This laptop always belonged to me. (You can't say was belonging)
I agreed with everything he said.

The passive or passive voice is an integral part of the English language. Often in Russian such phrases sound strange and unattractive, but for the English it is the norm.
This grammatical construction in Past Continuous is necessary to show that the action was carried out over the object during some time interval. It does not matter who performed it.

Let's pay attention to the structure of the sentence:
Assertion: Object + was/were + being + V3/V-ed semantic verb
Dinner was being cooked when Mary arrived.
It doesn't matter who cooked the dinner, the important thing is that it is coming and Mary is already excited about it.
Salted fish was being soaked from 7 pm to 9 pm. Then it was being cutted into pieces.

Negation: Object + was/were + not + being + V3/V-ed verb.
Bagels were not being sold in Jeffrey 's bakery yesterday.
Bagels weren't being sold in Jeffrey's bakery yesterday. (Abbreviated form)
Their house was not being built the whole last year.
Their house wasn't being built the whole last year. - (Abbreviated form)

Questions: Was/were + object + being + V3/V-ed verb.
Were songs being sung all evening?
What was being sung all evening?
Recall that the formation of the verb V3/V-ed was mentioned in the description of Present Perfect.

The "Progressive" ruler indicates long-lasting accomplishments, but it is still possible to confuse it with other times.

Let's look at the table. It summarizes the main differences in use

If a long process is interrupted by a short action, both tenses are used together.
They were trying to apply first aid to injured person when the ambulance arrived. (They were trying to apply first aid to the injured person when the ambulance arrived - quick action).

Past Continuous often overlaps with Present Perfect Continuous. Consider the difference between the two.

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