Learn English Grammar: PAST PROGRESSIVE

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Hey, this is Alex.

Welcome to this lesson on the past progressive.

Now the progressive tenses are some of the easier tenses to learn in the English language.

So if you're a low intermediate English learner, this might be a very good lesson for you.

So basically what the past progressive does is tell a person about an event that was in

progress at some point in the past, at some point before now, okay?

So I was washing the dishes yesterday.

Jane was shopping on Saturday.

They were singing very loudly.

So this one, you're actually, they were singing very loudly.

There's no real set time, like over here you have yesterday, here you have Saturday, here

they just have, they were singing very loudly.

You're assuming that, you know, they were singing very loudly at some point in the past.

So maybe you're in the middle of a conversation talking about, you know, "Didn't you go to

the concert yesterday?"

"Yeah, I heard the band.

They were singing very loudly."

You can also use the past progressive when you want to talk about two events that happened

at the same time.

So while he was swimming, so use while, while he was swimming, I was reading.

So two events that were happening at exactly the same point in time.

So let's look at the structure of the past progressive.

So here we have, let's look at the first sentence again.

I was washing the dishes yesterday.

So you have I, which is the subject.

So first thing you obviously need is a subject.

You have was, which is the past form of the verb to be.

Then you have the verb wash, plus ing.

So we know washing means something is continuous, it's something that's happening right now.

But it's not happening right now, it's something that happened in the past, which is why you

So you have subject, the verb to be, the verb, plus ing.

Here you have subject, Jane, the verb to be, Jane was.

The next word is shop, shopping.

So you have the verb shop, plus ing, or p-i-n-g in this case.

Jane was shopping.

Then you have again, they, the past form of the verb to be, were, they were, sing, plus

ing, sing the verb, plus ing, singing.

They were singing.

And again, while he was swimming, I was reading.

Okay, so essentially, this is actually very good for when you want to recount events,

so when you want to tell stories about things that maybe happened to you in the past, so

especially if you're telling a story or a narrative.

So again, it's pretty basic structure, subject, past form of the verb to be, the verb that

you're using or the action that you were doing, plus ing.

So at some point in the past, you were doing something, right?

So always focus on the duration of time, not on, you know, the completion of the event,

So if I said Tracy was reading a book yesterday, it's a lot different than if I said Tracy

read a book yesterday.

So, if I said Tracy read a book yesterday, it means the event is finished, right?

Versus if I say Tracy was reading a book yesterday, it means that at some point she was reading

a book and she might not be finished the book at this point, right?

So if you, again, if I said Tracy read, you get the idea that she finished reading the

book, versus Tracy was reading, she might still be reading it in the future as well.

So, again, if you'd like to test your knowledge of the past progressive, please go to engvid.com

and do the quiz.

My name is Alex, take care.