Here, you will find out when to use the Past Progressive, how to form it, and how to ask questions. At the end, you will also know how to use it together with the Simple Past.
The Use of the Past Progressive
Unlike the Simple Past, the Past Progressive is used to describe incomplete actions or events in the past.
It is often used in these specific contexts:
- single actions in the past that lasted some time:
We use the Past Progressive when talking about actions that took or continued to take some time in the past
⟹ My hand was hurting.
⟹ She was smiling.
- repeated past actions that bothered the speaker:
When making complaints in English about repeated actions, the Past Progressive is often used together with the word always (or something similar).
⟹ I was always running late.
⟹ She was never hurrying to school!
- actions in the past that describe the ongoing background action for another shorter action:
We use the Past Simple and the Past Progressive together to say that something happened in the middle of another action.
⟹ When I came home from work, my aunt was making dinner.
⟹ As I was driving home for Christmas, it started to snow.
- If you want to ask questions with the Past Progressive, you will have to invert the sentence structure.
Signal words
Signal words that tell you to use the Past Progressive are: at that time, while (Subjunctive), when