Практическая грамматика

1. To talk about an action that was in progress at a definite moment in the past.
«What were you doing at six o’clock last night?»
«I was watching the news on television.»
Between ten and eleven this morning I was reading.
2. To talk about actions that were in progress when something else happened.
When I was leaving, the phone rang.
3. To denote a certain state or quality peculiar to the person at a given moment in the past.
He knew he was being restrained.
4. To denote an action thought of as a continual process (with the adverbs always, ever, constantly).
She was constantly complaining of being lonely.
5. Both the Past Continuous and the Past Indefinite can be used after such phrases as the whole day, all day long.
They were working in the garden all day long.
They worked in the garden all day long.
The Past Continuous is rendered in Russian by the past imperfective.
When I came home, mother was cooking dinner.
Когда я вернулся, мама готовила обед.


The Future Continuous


§ 6. The use of the Future Continuous.
1. The Future Continuous is used to denote an action which will be going on at a definite moment in the future.
I’ll be having dinner at seven o’clock.
What will you be doing this time next week?
2. We use the Future Continuous for planned actions. In this meaning will be doing is similar to am doing.
I’ll be going to the city center later.
I am going to the city center later.
3. The Future Continuous is often used in Modern English in the same meaning as the Future Indefinite.
But my dear Ann, you will be getting into debt. (Wells)


Verbs not used in the Continuous form

It naturally follows from the definition of the Continuous form ("it denotes an action in a state of process at the present moment or at a definite moment in the past or future") that verbs, which do not express a process, are not used in the continuous form. The following groups of verbs do not express a process:

a) verbs denoting sense perception (to see, to hear),