Past continuous

Past continuous
I was doing
We use the past continuous tense to describe a past action over a period of time
Q) "What were they doing yesterday?" A) "They were working all day.
At 10:15 they were playing tennis.
We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but had not finished.
This time last year I was living in Brasil.
Compare the past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did):
Past continuous (in the middle of an action)
I was walking home when I met Dave. (in the middle of walking home)
Ann was watching televisono when the phone rang.
Past simple (complete action)
I walked home after the party last night.
Ann watched televison a lot when she was ill last year

Past simple and past continuous are used together when something happened in the middle of something else
Tom burnt his hand when he was cooking the dinner.
I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grasss and reading a book.
While I was working in the garden, I hurt my back.
But we use the past simple to say that one thing happened after another:
I was walking along the road when I saw Dave. So I stopped and we had a chat.
Compare:
When Karen arrived, we were having dinner (we had already started dinner before Karen arrived).
When Karen arrived, we had dinner. (first Karen arrived and then we had dinner)

There are some verbs (for example, know/want/believe) that are not normally used in the continuous:
We were good friends. We knew each other well (not “we were knowing”).
I was enjoying the party but Chris wanted to go home.
We also use past continuous to make POLITE REQUESTS:
I was hoping we could discuss a pay raise.
I was wondering if you had time to see me.