Past Progressive Tense

See also: Free-English-Study: Past Progressive Tense.

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Past progressive tense is used to indicate that an action was in progress when another action occurred in the past. Past progressive (was/were + Ving) refers to the action in progress, and simple past tense refers to the ?interrupting? action. While I was eating dinner, the telephone rang. The telephone rang while I was eating dinner. When the telephone rang, I was eating dinner. I was eating dinner when the telephone rang. Past continuous can also be used to indicate only one action which occurred in the past: What was John doing yesterday? He was working at the factory. What were they doing yesterday afternoon? They were playing soccer. What were you doing last night? I was studying English.

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Past Continuous (from Englishpage.com)

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