Past progresive

PAST PROGRESSIVE
It is used for an action over a period of past time, something that we were in the middle of; furthermore, it may mean an action over a whole period. Also, it is used forrepeated actions which are temporary, only for a period and for a past arrangement. In addition, it is used with temporary states. In order to conjugate the verb in the past progressive, we need theverb “to be” as an auxiliary verb and a verb with the “ing” form. In order to make the –ing form, we have the rules below.

Rules to form the past progressive: You need the verb “to be” in thepast tense as an auxiliary plus a verb with an –ing ending.

1) Add –ing to most of the verbs.

Examples: play - playing

rest - resting

jump - jumping

2) Whenthe verb ends in silent “e”, you must change “e” to “i” and add –ing.

Examples: paste - pasting

prepare - preparing

hide - hiding

3) When the verb ends in“ie”, you must change “ie” to “y” and add –ing.

Examples: tie - tying

lie - lying

die - dying

4) If the verb ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant andadd -ing

only if the syllable is a stressed one.

Examples: mop - mopping

swim - swimming

begin - beginning

Examples:
My husband was working from Mondayto Saturday.
I wasn’t feeling well this morning.
While I was teaching the time expression, Ivan and Ferdi were playing.
While my husband was driving to Hermosillo, I was sleeping.
While I wascutting the pictures, my son was pasting the others in his notebook.

PAST PROGRESSIVE
NEGATIVE FORM
|To make the negative form, we use wasn't or weren't|
|(subject+was/were+not+verb with the –ing form+complement |
| EXAMPLES:...