Past Progressive
Indicating Temporary Activities
Past Progressive v. Past Nonprogressive
| TEMPORARY – PAST PROGRESSIVE | MORE PERMANENT – PAST | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Use the past progressive to talke about more temporary activities. |
Use the past tense to talk about more permanent situations. |
||||
SUBJECT: noun Alison |
PREDICATOR: verb was living |
VERBAL COMPLEMENT in San Mateo while attending Stanford. |
SUBJECT: noun Alison |
PREDICATOR: verb lived |
VERBAL COMPLEMENT in San Francisco after she finished college. |
Alison |
was commuting |
to Palo Alto for four years. |
Alison |
commuted |
to work every day. |
She |
was standing |
on the train platform. |
Her office building |
stood |
on the corner on and Market Street. |
She |
*was loving |
her job in marketing. |
She |
loved |
her job in marketing. |
*Commonly used but Informal tense usage with a stative verb.
complement – a word, phrase, or clause that is required in a sentence to complete its meaning.
commute – to regularly travel a long distance to get to work
Past Progressive
Background Activity
Indicating Background Activities
| BACKGROUND ACTIVITY | MAIN FOCUS |
|---|---|
Use the past progressive to tell what is going on in the background. The sentence in the past progressive sets the scene for the next action in past nonprogressive. This pairing of tenses is also used for "name dropping" (mentioning the name of a famous person to impress other people.) |
Use the past tense to report an activity, action or event in the past. |
As we were walking along the sidewalk, we saw two cars crash. |
We saw two cars crash. |
I was having a beer with the President yesterday, and he said .... |
I spoke with the President. |
She was eating dinner with Justin Timberlake at a chic, new restaurant in New York , when the food on her plate started moving. |
She ate dinner with Justin Timberlake at a chic, new restaurant in New York. |
Madonna was saying that she still couldn't find a good man, then a handsome young man walked by our table and… |
Madonna said that she couldn't find a good man. |
Past Progressive
Adverbs & Time-relative Conjunctions
Adverbs for Both Past & Past Progressive Tenses
| PAST & PAST PROGRESSIVE ADVERBS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Past tense adverbs tell us when or how frequently a past activity occurred. Emphasis is on the action rather than the time. Past is used with all the adverbs in this table (except while...) |
Past progressive adverbs tell us how frequently or how long a past activity occurred. Emphasis is on the time: duration or repetition. Past progressive is used with all the adverbs in this table (except when...) |
||||
AT, IN, ON |
AGO, LAST, THAT/THOSE |
THIS / THESE |
CONJUNCTIONS |
ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY |
FOR, FROM, OVER, DURING |
A specific time in the past |
A past time based on quantity or calendar units |
A past time before the current time |
A time relative to another event or action in the past |
A time that reoccurred in the past |
A time with duration in the past |
yesterday (at noon yesterday, at midnight last night) |
a minute ago (second, hour, day, week, month, year) |
today / tonight (time passed; before now) |
then (versus now) |
always (routinely, customarily, normally, as a rule, in general) |
for three weeks (quantity of time) |
at 6:00 a.m. (hour) |
six weeks ago (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years) |
this morning (morning, evening, afternoon, week, month, year) |
when I saw it |
usually (most of the time) |
from Monday to Friday |
on January 10. (day) |
last night (week, month, year) |
these mornings(evenings, afternoons, weeks, months, years) |
*while I was there |
often (frequently, half of the time) |
during the 1960s |
in January (month) |
last Thursday (June, winter, leap-year) |
REPETITION |
whenever I tried |
sometimes (occasionally, on occasion) |
continuously |
in the 1960s |
that morning (morning, evening, afternoon, week, month, year) |
several times, repeatedly (not used with the progressive) |
if I saw them |
rarely (seldom, hardly ever) |
|
those mornings(evenings, afternoons, weeks, months, years) |
|
never (not ever) |
since is not used with either past or progressive tense |
||
*Using that / those distances the speaker from the time mentioned.
Related page: Adverbs of Time
Common Mistakes
| ERRORS | FIXES |
|---|---|
I took the train when I was living in San Francisco. |
I took the train when I lived in San Francisco. |
I was was getting lost several times. |
I got lost several times.
(Use nonprogressive with "several times".) |
I was living there since June 2010. |
I was living there in June 2010. (I lived there temporarily during that period.) |
Past Progressive Sentences
Word Order
| AUXILIARY VERB | SUBJECT | AUXILIARY VERB | MAIN VERB | ADVERBIAL PHRASE | CLAUSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
STATEMENT |
Alison |
was |
living |
in San Francisco. |
|
Alison and her friend |
were |
living |
in San Francisco. |
|
|
QUESTION Was |
Alison |
|
living |
in San Francisco? |
|
Were |
Alison and her friend |
|
living |
in San Francisco? |
|
*TAG QUESTION |
Alison |
was |
living |
in San Francisco, |
wasn't she? |
Alison and her friend |
were |
living |
in San Francisco, |
weren't they? |
|
NEGATIVE
|
Alison |
wasn't (not) |
living |
in San Francisco. |
|
|
Alison and her friend |
were n' t (not) |
not living |
in San Francisco. |
|
†EMPHASIS
|
Alison |
was |
living |
in San Francisco. |
|
|
Alison and her friend |
were |
living |
in San Francisco. |
|
*A tag question can also occur with a negative main sentence and a positive final question: Alison wasn't living in San Francisco, was she? Related page: And so / too
†Use emphasis word order when contradicting or stating that the opposite is true: "I think that Alison wasn't living in San Francisco." "No, she was living there."
Practice
Union Square in San Francisco, California
Background Activities
Past Progressive versus Nonprogressive
- Select the word order that best completes the sentence.
- Then click the button on the right to check your answer.