Past Continuous (or Past Progressive) in English: A Complete Guide

If you’re learning English as an additional language one of the first and most important things you need to learn is how to talk about things that happened in the past, things that happen in the present, and things that will happen in the future. English has different tenses you can use to express the past. In this article, we’ll understand how to express ideas in the past continuous (or past progressive).

In case you need to remember all of these tenses, check out this amazing overview of all verb tenses in English!

Past Continuous (or Past Progressive) in English

The past continuous (or past progressive) is a tense used to refer to the past in English. However, differently from the past simple, which refers to something that happened at a specific point in the past, the past continuous is used to talk about something that continued during a period of time in the past. It emphasizes not only what happened but also its duration. It is often used to talk about actions that were happening when something else happened (I was taking a shower when he called me), parallel actions (I was watching tv while she was doing her homework), repeated actions in the past (I was going to that park every day), actions that happened before or after another action (They were playing when I got there), and actions that lasted for some time in the past (It was raining cats and dogs).

How to Form the Past Continuous (or Past Progressive)

Affirmative, Negative, and Interrogative (Question) Forms

To form an affirmative sentence in this tense, you use the structure subject + be in the past + verb (-ing form) + object.

To form a negative sentence in this tense, you use the structure subject + be in the past + not + verb (-ing form) + object.

To form an interrogative sentence (question) in this tense, use the structure: Be in the past + subject + verb (-ing form) + object + question mark (?).

Short answers

To answer questions in the past continuous you can use short answers.

Action Verbs vs. Stative Verbs

The past continuous tense is usually used with action verbs. As suggested by their name, these verbs express actions. Such verbs are: walk, run, cook, watch, read, write, listen to, send, drive, ride, visit, etc.

The past continuous tense isn’t usually used with state verbs. As suggested by their name, these verbs express states. Such verbs are: love, hate, like, dislike, seem, want, know, need,  etc.

Is this always true?

Well, not exactly. There’s a very famous from a very famous fast-food restaurant, for instance, that says “i’m lovin’ it”.

This is an example of how people use the language creatively and end up changing it.

Another aspect that we need to pay attention to is that some verbs can have either a stative meaning or a more dynamic meaning. Take a look at the examples below.

In the first example above, have has a stative meaning, thus it’s inappropriate to use it in the past continuous.

In the second example above, have has a stative meaning, thus it’s appropriate to use it in this tense.

Past Simple and Past Continuous

The past simple is often used with the past continuous to emphasize something that happened at a specific point in the past while something else was happening. Take a look at the examples below.

When vs. While

When is usually followed by short actions (simple past).

While is usually followed by long actions (past continuous).

Adverbs of Frequency

When adverbs of frequency are used with the past continuous, they usually go between the auxiliary verb be (and its negation) and the main verb. Look at the examples below.

WH Question Words

When WH question words are used with questions in the past continuous, they go before the auxiliary verb be. Look at the examples below:

Example Sentences

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