Back in 1997…
I was climbing trees with friends.
I was playing with Legos every Saturday morning.
I was doing ollies off the curb on my razor scooter.
I was catching salamanders and keeping them in a small plastic cage.
I was living my best life, at 5 years old.
Ah, the good ol’ days, and the past progressive tense. This tense is one of twelve verb tenses.
The past progressive tense indicates continuous, ongoing, or progressive action that occurred in the past – that something was happening for a prolonged period, back then. This tense works well to describe previous routines, extended actions, habits, patterns, or repeated events.
Use the past progressive to describe…
1. The background of a story told in past tense.
- “The sun was shining on the lake, birds were chirping in the trees, and the father was making coffee in the kitchen when young Timothy, sleepy, wandered in.”
2. To describe an action that got interrupted by a different action
- I was sitting in class, minding my own business, when Natalie spilled her water bottle all over me.
3. Paired with thinking, wondering, or hoping to express a polite request
- I was just thinking that you and I should get coffee sometime.
4. To express a previous state or idea, before a change of mind.
- We were planning to buy you dinner, but then we heard that you already made plans with Chad.
How to Form the Past Progressive Tense
[was or were] + [base verb+ing]
Use was for singular subjects (except you), and were for plural subjects. This same formula applies to all verbs in the present progressive tense, even verbs that act irregularly in other tenses. There are no irregular conjugations in the present progressive or past progressive tenses.
Common regular verb past progressive conjugations
| Sample verb: | to be | to have | to do |
| First-person singular: | I was being. | I was having. | I was doing. |
| First-person plural: | We were being. | We were having. | We were doing. |
| Second-person singular: | You were being. | You were having. | You were doing. |
| Second-person plural: | You were being. | You were having. | You were doing. |
| Third-person singular: | She was being. | She was having. | She was doing. |
| Third-person plural: | They were being. | They were having. | They were doing. |
Changing verbs to their -ing form
For more information about changing a verb to its -ing form, check out the “Forming the Present Participle” Section on the present progressive tense guide.
Negative version of past progressive: Subject + [was/were] + not + [base verb+ing]
- We were not talking during your lesson!
- They weren’t stealing, just borrowing!
- I wasn’t thinking when I committed that crime.
Interrogative (question) version of past progressive: Was/Were + [subject] + [base verb+ing] ?
- Was Jason talking back in class today?
- Were you lying when you said you loved me?
- Were you trying to make me mad?
Hopefully this guide has provided you with the verb tense tools to jump back into your next writing project confidently, conveying with precision what and when your subjects do their actions. Over time, the various verb tenses become more and more natural, and while you progress, this guide is here to help. So get back to writing, always keeping clarity intertwined with complexity.
