was getting worse all the time. One of the headlights was gradually falling off, and the engine was making more and more funny noises. Repeated actions - criticism
With a frequency adverb, this use is similar to the use of present continuous
to express annoyance.
When Jane was at school, she was always losing things.
Past continuous is not used to describe general habitual actions, without the
sense of criticism mentioned above. Past simple is used for this meaning.
When I lived in London, I walked through the park every day. Past perfect simple and continuous
We use the past perfect when we are already talking about the past, and we
want to go back to an earlier past time ('double past').
By the time I got to the station, the train had left. Compare this with:
The train left five minutes before I got to the station. When we talk about a sequence of past events in the order that they happened, we more
commonly use the past simple, especially with quick, short actions.
Past perfect continuous (progressive)
The same contrasts between past simple and past continuous can be made in past perfect verb
forms for events further back in the past.
I had been living in a bed-sitter up to then. While I had been talking on the phone, Jimmy had escaped. The whole place was deserted, but it was obvious that someone had been living there. They'd been cooking in the kitchen for a start, and they hadn't
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bothered to clear up the mess.
Past perfect is also common in reported speech.
Past perfect is not used simply to describe an event in the distant past.