As I was saying, there are many ways to talk about the past. And the past continuous tense is a very useful way to do so. The past continuous is formed by was / were + gerund.
One reason to use the past continuous is to talk about an action happening at a concrete moment in the past:
They were playing basketball last night.
She was driving her new car yesterday.
Another reason to use the past continuous for parallel actions, actions that happen at the same time.
He was driving and talking on his cellphone.
I was cooking while the kids were doing their homework.
The past continuous is also used to talk about a longer action being interrupted by another shorter action.
I was reading in bed when you called.
The TV exploded while she was watching the news.
As you can see above the, the tense of the interrupting action is the past simple. And in this structure, the conjunctions when and while are useful. We tend to use while with the long action (past continuous) and when with the short action (past simple).
So, as I was saying, the past continuous is very useful.
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