When do we use past continuous tenses?

Answer 1

Past continuous is used to talk about a state or action that was in progress in the past, this state or action continued for a period but is now finished.

They were listening to the radio last night.

Past continuous is often used with past simple (as below) to show something that happened over a period of time (was raining ) and the past simple shows something that happened during that period of time (left the house).

It was raining when I left the house this morning.

We can use past continuous for two actions if both were continuing at the same time.eg

I was watching TV and my wife was reading a magazine.

Answer 2

We use the past continuous tense to describe an action that was ongoing in the past at a specific moment or over a period of time. It is often used to set the scene, provide background information, or describe an interrupted action in the past.