Past Progressive – Grammar & Verb Tenses

Ellii Past Progressive What are verb tenses? Verb tenses show the time  that an action takes place. The simple past and the past  progressive are verb tenses.

For short past actions, we use the simple past. For long, continuing past actions, we use  the simple past or the past progressive. For example, in the sentence  “I called my friend at 9:00 pm last night,” the simple past  verb “called” is a short action.

In the sentence "I talked to my  friend for two hours last night," the simple past verb "talked" is a long action. In the sentence "I was talking  to my friend for two hours last night," the past progressive verb  “was talking” is also a long action. Using the past progressive helps to  emphasize that an action is long.

How do we form the past progressive in English? We use “was” or “were,” which are the past  forms of the Be verb, and an -ing verb. For example: He was walking to school.

They were waiting for me. The student was taking a test. The students were eating lunch.

There are two common reasons  to use the past progressive. We use the past progressive to show when a  short past action interrupts a long past action. “When” is a common time marker for this use.

For example: I was watching TV  when the power went out last night. The children were doing a science  experiment when the fire alarm rang. It started to rain when she was walking to school.

We also use the past progressive to show two  long past actions taking place at the same time. “While” is a common time marker for this use. For example: I was watching  TV while you were studying.

Juan was playing the guitar  while Maria was singing. While the teacher was writing on the  board, the students were talking. What are clauses?

A clause contains a subject and a verb. An independent clause can stand  alone as a complete sentence, while a dependent clause can’t stand alone. For example, in the sentence “I was watching TV  when the power went out,” the independent clause is “I was watching TV” and the dependent  clause is “when the power went out.

” Did you know that we can reverse the order of the clauses with no difference in meaning? Note that we need a comma when a  dependent clause starts the sentence. Let’s look at a few more examples.

It started to rain when she was walking to school. When she was walking to school, it started to rain. The students were talking while the  teacher was writing on the board.

While the teacher was writing on the  board, the students were talking. Juan was playing the guitar  while Maria was singing. While Maria was singing,  Juan was playing the guitar.

Look at the picture and say or write a sentence  using simple past or past progressive verbs. Use past progressive verbs  whenever it’s possible to do so. For example: He was climbing a ladder when he fell.

Now you try! They were singing in the car while he was driving. We were hiking when it started to rain.

She was watching a movie while  her parents were sleeping. When the phone rang last  night, I was making dinner. While my sister was studying,  my brother was watching TV.

Thanks for watching!