THE PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE

Use the past progressive tense to talk about actions that were going on at a certain moment in the past.

For example:

Miss May was cleaning the chalkboard.

Sally was packing her books into her schoolbag.

Jenny and I were tidying the classroom.

The twins were fighting in the corner.

Michael and John were washing the paintbrushes.

Mom was cooking our supper when I came home.

Mary was waiting for the bus when Peter passed by.

You form the past progressive tense like this:

was + present participle

were + present participle

In the examples above, “was and were” are called helping verbs, or auxiliary verbs. They help to form the past progressive tense when you join them to the present participle (the form of verbs ending in -ing).

For example:

Ben was doing his homework.

Peter was making a model of a bridge.