Past Continuous (Progressive) Tense

The Past Continuous (Progressive) Tense is used to describe actions that were ongoing at a specific moment in the past. It emphasizes the duration or progress of an action that was happening before it was interrupted or before another action took place.

Formation

The past continuous tense is formed using the auxiliary verb "to be" in the past tense (was/were) + the -ing form of the main verb.

Subject	Auxiliary Verb (to be)	Verb Example (to eat)
I / He / She / It	was	eating
You / We / They	were	eating

• Affirmative: I was eating, They were eating
• Negative: I was not eating, They were not eating (or They weren’t eating)
• Interrogative: Was she eating?, Were you eating?

Usage

1. Actions in Progress in the Past: Describes actions that were happening at a specific point or over a period in the past.
   • At 8 PM yesterday, I was watching TV.
2. Interrupted Actions: Shows an ongoing action that was interrupted by another event in the past.
   • She was cooking when the phone rang.
3. Background Actions: Sets the scene in a story or provides background details.
   • It was raining, and the wind was blowing hard.
4. Parallel Actions: Describes two or more actions happening simultaneously in the past.
   • While I was studying, my sister was cooking dinner.

Examples:

• Affirmative: He was reading a book all afternoon.
• Negative: We weren’t playing soccer yesterday.
• Interrogative: Were you sleeping at that time?

Notes

• The past continuous is often used with time expressions like while, when, at 5 PM, or yesterday to indicate when the action was taking place.
• For verbs ending in -e, drop the e and add -ing (write → writing).
• For one-syllable verbs ending with a single vowel and consonant, double the consonant before adding -ing (run → running).

Common Time Expressions

Expression	Example
While	While I was reading, she was cooking.
When	When I called, he was working.
At (specific time)	At 10 PM, they were driving home.
All + time period	She was studying all night.