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The past progressive tense is used to describe an ongoing activity in the past. It is often used to set the scene for another action. The past progressive tense is formed 'was' or 'were' plus the present participle.
The past continuous tense, also known as the past progressive tense, describes ongoing actions in the past, such as I was writing my research paper all night. It uses the same construction as the present continuous tense except with the past tense of the verb to be.
The past progressive tense is a verb form used to refer to an action that was ongoing at a time in the past. The past progressive is formed using the past tense of the auxiliary verb “be” (i.e., “was/were”) along with the present participle (“ing” form) of a main verb (e.g., “I was thinking”).
The past progressive tense in English conveys an action that was ongoing and not resolutely concluded in the past. The action in progress had not yet finished but has done so by the time we learn of it.
The only difference is that the past progressive form (was raining) suggests that it was still raining when you made the decision and continued to rain, whereas the past perfect progressive (had been raining) tells us only about the situation up to the decision.
The past progressive tense, also called the past continuous, expresses an action that was ongoing or in progress at a specific moment in the past. The past progressive is formed with was/were + present participle (-ing form) of the main verb.
The past progressive describes an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past. It can be used: To describe an action that started in the past and was interrupted by another action:
Use of Past Progressive. puts emphasis on the course of an action in the past. Example: He was playing football. two actions happening at the same time (in the past) Example: While she was preparing dinner, he was washing the dishes. action going on at a certain time in the past.
The past progressive tense indicates a continuing action or an action in progress that started in the past. The past progressive expresses events that lasted for a duration of time in the past. The past progressive tense is also used in the past perfect progressive. Examples of sentences with past progressive:
The Past Continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at that moment. For example, yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.