Past Progressive Tense
Past Progressive Aspect
You have learned about tenses at the primary level. There are three tenses: present, past, and future. These three tenses have four aspects:
- Indefinite.
- Progressive.
- Perfect.
- Perfect Progressive.
Tenses are a class, and aspects are its subcategory. Aspects are a subcategory of tenses that refers to the flow of time within a particular tense.
Past tense:
Past tense is used to express actions that happened in the past. There are four aspects of the past tense.
- Past indefinite/ simple aspect.
- Past continuous/ progressive aspect.
- Past perfect aspect.
- Past perfect progressive/ continuous aspect.
In this lesson, you will learn about the essential and necessary things of past progressive aspect. It’s structure and uses. The past progressive aspect is also known as a past continuous aspect.
What is Past Progressive Aspect?
Past progressive aspect is used to talk about actions that were started in the past and were in progress for some time in the past (in progress actions), or some activities happened continuously at a specific time in the past.
Unlike past simple aspect which is used to express actions that happened in the past at a specific time and ended in that particular time as well (completed action).
The past progressive aspect expresses events that lasted for a duration of time in the past. But those events and actions are not in progress when they are shown in past continuous sentences. The past progressive aspect has several uses in writing and speaking.
Example:
- I was sleeping at that time.
- I was playing cricket yesterday.
Formation/ structure of Past Progressive Aspect
The past progressive sentence is formed by adding to be a verb (was/ were)
Past progressive or continuous aspect is created by using the past tense of to be verb, which is 'was' and 'were' and present participle form of the verb '-ing,' which is why it is a continuous aspect.
Unlike simple past tense, in which 'was' and 'were' are used to express the state of being.
Example:
- Play becomes playing.
- Eat becomes eating.
- Sleep becomes sleeping.
Likewise, there are many more verbs that are changed in the present participle form of the verb in progressive aspects of tenses.
General structure | Subject | Helping verb | Main verb | Object | Time period | Punctuation |
Past progressive | Subject | Was/ were | Main verb + ing | Object | Adverb of time or specific time | Depends on sentence type |
Positive/ Affirmative sentence:
Subject | To be verb | Main verb | Object | Time period | Punctuation |
Subject | Was/ were | Main verb + -ing | Object | Adverb of time or specific time | Full stop (period) |
She | Was | watching | Match | yesterday | . |
Important note: Use was with singular subjects ( I, she, he, it) and were with plural subjects (you, they, we).
Example:
- I was playing badminton at 9 o’clock.
- She was studying yesterday.
- You were doing a workout last night.
- They were going to a party yesterday.
- He was doing his homework at 8 am.
Negative sentence:
Subject | To be verb +not | Main verb | Object | Time period | Punctuation |
Subject | Was/ were +not | Main verb + -ing | Object | Adverb of time or specific time | Full stop (period) |
She | Was not | watching | Match | yesterday | . |
Example:
- I was not playing badminton at 9 o’clock.
- She was not studying yesterday.
- You were not doing workout last night.
- They were not going to a party yesterday.
- He was not doing his homework at 8 am.
Interrogative sentence
To be verb +not | Subject | Main verb | Object | Time period | Punctuation |
Was/ were | Subject | Main verb + -ing | Object | Adverb of time or specific time | Full stop (period) |
Was | She | watching | Match | yesterday | Question mark (?) |
Example:
- Was I playing badminton at 9 o’clock?
- Was she studying yesterday?
- Were you doing workout last night?
- Were they going for a party yesterday?
- Was he doing his homework at 8 am?
Past Progressive Aspect Uses
There are mainly three uses of past progressive aspect.
1. Something happening continuously at a particular time in the past.
2. Something happening continuously for a period of time in the past.
3. To show interrupted actions in the past.
Something happening continuously at a particular time in the past.
The vital role of the past progressive aspect is to express actions that happened continuously at some precise time in the past. You ca not use the adverb of time in such sentences.
Example:
- She was cooking dinner at 9 o'clock.
- He was playing chess at ten o'clock.
- At 12'o clock, we were celebrating Ali's birthday.
Something happening continuously for a period of time.
The second most crucial usage of past progressive aspect is to express things that happened in the past and were ongoing for some time. You can use the adverb of time in such sentences, but you cannot use a specific time like 9 o’clock, etc.
Example:
- I was reading a story at that time.
- She was dancing last night in her room.
- They were planning a trip yesterday.
To show interrupted actions in the past.
The last usage of past progressive aspect is to show actions that were taking place in the past, and some other work interrupted them. The other action that interrupts ongoing action is expressed in the simple past tense.
Example:
- He was playing cards when I called him.
- She was making lunch for me when I arrived home.
- I lost my mobile while I was in Abu Dhabi.
Summary
In this lesson, we learned that the past progressive aspect is used to define ongoing activities in the past. It is formed by to be verb (was and were) and present participle form of the verb. There are several uses of past progressive; some are discussed in this lesson.