Past continuous – I was working at 11am yesterday

Use (Verwendung)

 

The past continuous is used to describe actions of duration in the past. We generally use it:
Das Past Continuous wird gebraucht, um andauernde Handlungen in der Vergangenheit zu beschreiben. Generell wird es gebraucht, um:

1. to describe an action of duration in the past which was in course at a specific time:
I was working at 11am yesterday.
eine andauernde Handlung in der Vergangenheit zu beschreiben, die zu einer bestimmten Zeit im Verlauf war:
I was working at 11am yesterday. (“Ich arbeitete gestern um 11 Uhr ”)

2. to describe an event of duration in the past (past continuous) interrupted by another event (past simple):
He was writing an email when the phone rang.
ein andauerndes Ereignis in der Vergangenheit (Past Continuous) zu beschreiben, das durch ein anderes Ereignis (Past Simple) unterbrochen wurde: He was writing an email when the phone rang. (“Er schrieb (gerade) eine Email als das Telefon klingelte”.)

3. to describe two parallel events of duration in the past:
We were speaking to a customer while John was giving a presentation.
zwei in der Vergangeheit gleichzeitig andauernde Ereignisse zu beschreiben:
We were speaking to a customer while John was giving a presentation. (“Wir sprachen mit einem Kunden als John eine Präsentation gab.”

Form

Negative (Verneinung)

To make a negative sentence we simply add not between was/were and the verb.
I was not making a noise while he was giving the presentation.
Um einen Satz negativ zu machen, wird einfach not zwischen was/were und dem Verb eingefügt.
I was not making a noise while you were giving the presentation. (“Ich gab keinen Laut von mir während er die Präsentation hielt.”)

Questions (Fragen)

To make a question we simply invert was/were and the subject.
What were you doing at 11am yesterday?
Question words are placed at the start of the sentence.
Um Fragen zu bilden werden einfach was/were und das Subjekt vertauscht:
What were you doing at 11am yesterday? (“Was hast Du gestern um 11 Uhr gemacht?”)