The past progressive Tense

past progressive and its usage:

1) To express an activity that was happening at a special time in the

past.

Affirmative statement

To make an Affirmative past progressive statement, simply follow this pattern:

Subject+verb to be(was, were)+main verb in base form+ing

Examples:

•I /He/she/it was playing football.

•We/you/they were playing football.

Negative statement

To make a negative past progressive statement, simply follow the following

pattern:

Subject+verb to be(was, were)+not+main verb in base form+ing

•I/He/she/it was not playing football.

•We/you/they were not playing football.

We use short forms in the Past Progressive in negative sentences:

I/he/she/it wasn't playing football.We/you/they weren't playing football.

Question

To make a question in the present progressive, simply follow the following pattern:

was, were/+subject+main verb in base form+ing

•Was I/he/she/it playing football?

•Were we/you/they playing football?

Affirmative Negative Question

I was taking a showerI was n’t taking a

showerWas I taking a

shower?

you were running home

you weren’t running home

Were you running home?

She was reading a magazine.

She wasn’t reading a magazine.

Was She reading a magazine?

We were playing a computer game

We weren’t playing a computer game

Were we playing a computer game?

He was writing a letter

He wasn’t writing a letter

Was he writing a letter?

Present progressive form

Exercise:

Make sentences in present progressive tense.

Affirmative Negative Question

Kathy was dancing with Bob

Kathy wasn’t dancing with Bob

He wasn’t telling a jokes

Was he telling jokes?

We were visiting a farm

Were we visiting the farm

They were answering the phone

They weren’t answering the phone