Past Progressive
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[00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome back and if you're new to my channel, I especially want to welcome you. Today we're gonna be talking about, um, the past continuous, sometimes it's referred to as the past progressive, but basically it's the same thing. Sometimes it's just one is called continuous. Sometimes it's called progressive, but it's the same thing, a continuing action.
So we're gonna look at that today and describe its characteristics, its structures, and then. Five ways that we can use the past continuous in our everyday English. So let's go ahead and get started. What is the past continuous? Well, it's one of the 12 verb tenses. It is, uh, an action in the past that began earlier and was in progress when another action occurred.
Sometimes we call that second action the interrupter. Okay. Um, there [00:01:00] doesn't always have to be an interruption or a second action, but usually that's how we use this tense. Usually there is something that occurred, so something was happening, something was in progress, and then something else occurred.
Sometimes it interrupted it. But something else happened. Its form or structure is was, or were plus the verb ING or that present partisan. That's where we get the ING from. All right, so here's an example. I was driving home when the storm began, so driving home was the action that was already in progress.
And then the storm began. The storm was the interrupter. And as you can see, it's very common for the past progressive to be used with the simple past, you know, all in the same sentence. So especially when, uh, describing one event happening [00:02:00] while another event was in progress. So now sometimes I'll get the question and um, was that activity that was in progress or continuing.
Did it stop because of the interruption? Did that interruption stop that first event? Well, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. That's not really the emphasis of this tense. , the emphasis is on what is happening or what is in what was in progress in the past. Okay. Before it was interrupted by something else.
Okay. So that's the emphasis, the continuing or act action or activity that was in progress. So let's look at some structures. We have statements, we can have questions, we can use a negative. So here's another statement. You were studying when I called. Okay? You can also make this into a question. Were you studying when I called and [00:03:00] notice that we switched the subject and the verb.
Okay. Instead of saying you were studying, we switched the verb were. You studying when I called? Was everyone waiting when you got there? Now here's a negative. You were not, or you weren't studying when I called. Now in, uh, this tense, it's very common to use when and while. And you will see those examples as we go along in this lesson.
So let's kind of break this down. Let's look at the five ways that we can use the past progressive. So I'm just gonna give you all five of them first, so you kinda see what they are. And then we are going to kind of describe and talk about each one and give examples. So number one. An interrupted action in the past by a shorter action is probably the most common way.
Another one is specific time as an [00:04:00] interruption. Three parallel actions. It's another way we use this tense. A fourth way is atmosphere. Okay, and a fifth way is repetition and interruption with the words always and constantly. Okay. Number one, interrupted action in the past by a shorter action. All right, here's one example.
I was eating lunch when the phone rang. Okay, so the action, I was eating lunch. That's the action in progress or the continuation. I was eating lunch when the phone rang. So the phone rang. Okay. Maybe I stopped eating lunch to answer it. Another example, I was walking down the street when it began to rain again, the past continuous form.
I was walking down the street and then it began to rain. Okay. We say [00:05:00] when it began to rain began in the simple past number three. The movie was just beginning when Tony arrived, and then the interrupter is Tony arrived and the movie still continued. You know, we probably understand that, but then the interrupter of that, we talk about something else happened.
We say something else. Tony arrived number four. They were traveling on the highway when they got a flat tire. So activity in progress, traveling down the highway. Then the flat tire happened. That was definitely an interrupter, I would say. So that interrupted action in the past by a shorter action is probably the most common way, , to use these.
Now. Sometimes there's really no interruption. I just kinda wanna throw that in there. , here's an example. Did you hear the announcement? No, I wasn't listening. [00:06:00] Okay. So in that little dialogue there, I could just say I wasn't listening. That's referring to, uh, something in the past. You know, there was, there were announcements, um, but I wasn't listening.
Here's another example. I wasn't at the party because I was studying now in some cases, uh, the simple past and the past, progressive. It can have the same meaning. They can convey the same meaning. For example, I could say it rained this morning, or I could also say it was raining this morning. So in that case, sometimes these tenses, simple past and past progressive, have the same meaning.
Okay. The second way that we use past continuous specific time as an interruption, we use specific time as the interrupter. For example, at eight o'clock last night, I was studying, [00:07:00] so my studying began before eight o'clock and it was in progress at that time, at eight o'clock, and it probably continued another one.
We were still driving home at midnight. Same thing. We were in, , progress of driving home. Then midnight came. It was midnight and we were still driving. A third way is parallel actions. Two actions happening at the same time. Okay. Exactly the same time. For example, while I was studying in my room, my sister was having a party in the next room.
So I was studying and then at the same time, my sister was having a party. Another example. Were you listening while I was talking? Okay. So this is a question. Were you listening? Were listening [00:08:00] while I was talking. So at the same time here, uh, it's just in a question number three. We were eating dinner.
Talking about our trip and having a good time. So here we have three actions, but they're all happening at the same time. Three parallel actions, eating, dinner, talking about our trip, having a good time all at the same time. A fourth way that we use past continuous is with atmosphere. Now, what does atmosphere mean?
What do we mean by that? Well, basically it's how the space around you feels, how it feels to someone, you know. What feeling do you get in that space or in that room or in that area. So here's an example. Here's a sentence. When I walked into the classroom, three boys were flying paper airplanes across the room.
Two students were drawing on the whiteboard, everyone was talking loudly, and the substitute teacher was [00:09:00] trying to get everyone's attention. It was chaos. So you can see all these actions that are ha that have happened or were happening in the past. Okay. We're flying paper, airplanes, we're drawing on the whiteboard.
Everyone was talking loudly. Teacher was trying to get everyone's attention. So we have an atmosphere that's created, you know, some sense that you get. So, you know, it's, it's also similar to parallel actions too. But we're also using it in this sense to give a feeling of a type of atmosphere that's something that's going on.
Another way that we can use the past continuous, uh, in speaking is when we express repetition and irritation with the words always and constantly. Okay? Here's an example. Marty wasn't a good friend. She was always gossiping about me. Okay, so here is, she was always gossiping. Okay. [00:10:00] And we don't really have an interrupter, but that is our past continuous form was always gossiping.
Another example I didn't like sitting next to Robin class. He was constantly talking, so was talking or was constantly talking. We stick those adverbs of always and constantly between the verb of B and. , the present part is simple. Okay. This example, these forms, , you don't usually have an interrupter, although Rob sounds like he was quite an interrupter.
All right? Another one. I didn't take early morning classes because I was always staying up too late. All of these situations, all of these examples, uh, in, in these five ways expressed that something was continuing in the past. Sometimes there was an interrupter, sometimes there wasn't. But it happened in the past and it's usually no longer occurring in the present.
[00:11:00] So this concludes, , our tutorial for the past continuous. I hope you found it helpful. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to include, um, a video quiz here at the end. However, I did include a, a direct link so that you can actually take, a quiz yourself. So there's a link in the description below. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe if you enjoyed this tutorial.
Happy learning everyone.
