Simple Past Progressive

Simple Past Progressive Tense

Simple past progressive tense, also known as past continuous tense, is a tense used to talk about an ongoing activity at a certain moment in the past. The activity had already started but had not yet been completed at that time.

 

Simple Past Progressive Tense Formula

In the use of simple past progressive tense or past continuous tense before the present participle verb ending in -ing, the auxiliary verb (be) is placed, namely was and were. Below is the formula used in positive, negative and interrogative sentences :

Singular noun, I / he / she / it / John / Mary= "was"

Plural noun, You / we / they / books / cars / John and Mary = "were"

 

Positive Sentence

S + auxiliary verb (was/were) + Verb-ing

Example of sentences;

- Sally was packing her books into her schoolbag.

- Mom was cooking our lunch when I came home.

- Jenny and I were tidying the classroom.

- They were writing letters.

 

Negative Sentence

S + auxiliary verb (was/were) + not + Verb-ing

Example of sentences;

- Sally was not packing her books into her schoolbag.

- Mom was not cooking our lunch when I came home.

- Jenny and I were not tidying the classroom. 

- They were not writing letters.

 

Note = was / were not can be abbreviated wasn't / weren't

 

Interrogative Sentences

Auxiliary verb (was/were) + S + Verb-ing

Example of sentences;

- Was Sally packing her books into her schoolbag?

- Was Mom cooking our lunch when I came home?

- Were Jenny and you tidying the classroom?

- They were writing letters?

 

 

Functions of Simple Past Progressive Tense Sentences.

1. Talking about an activity that happened during a certain period of time in the past. Descriptions of time that can be used are as follows:

at this morning

at 7 am this morning

at this time last night / yesterday / a week ago / etc

all day yesterday

in August 

 

Example of sentences;

They were sleeping at this time last night.

Mom was cooking at this morning.

He was working as teacher in August.

 

2. Indicates that there is a short duration event that occurs when a long duration event is in progress.

Consider the following two example sentence patterns:

Simple past tense + while + past continuous tense.

A thief broke into his house while he was sleeping last night.

 Past continuous tense + when + simple past tense.

He was sleeping when a thief broke into his house last night .

3. Showing repeated events in the past or past habits.

Example of sentences:

My daughter was always snoring while she sleep.

John and Nina were often tidying their house at night.

 

Note: This tense is sometimes used to criticize an action in the past.

Thankyou!