Past Continuous Negative Exercises

To make a negative past continuous sentence, add not after was or were: "I was not sleeping" or "They were not listening." In everyday English, the contracted forms wasn't and weren't are far more common: "I wasn't sleeping" and "They weren't listening." The verb still takes the -ing ending — the negative word goes between the helper verb and the main verb, never after the -ing form.

Negative past continuous sentences are especially useful for correcting false assumptions or denying actions: "I wasn't watching television — I was studying!" They also appear in contrast sentences where one action was happening while another was not: "While everyone was celebrating, she wasn't smiling." A frequent mistake is placing "not" in the wrong position — learners sometimes write "I was sleeping not" instead of "I wasn't sleeping." Always place not directly after was or were. The full forms "was not" and "were not" are used in formal writing, but for Cambridge exams and IELTS, both contracted and full forms are accepted.