The past progressive tense

Use

to talk about past events in progress

The past progressive is used to talk about events that were in progress around a particular past time.

• ‘What were you doing yesterday evening?’
• ‘I was watching TV.’
• At 7 am this morning, I was doing my homework.

The past progressive is also used to stress that an activity was in progress at every moment during a period of time.

• I was resting all day yesterday.

past progressive and simple past

We often use the past progressive together with a simple past tense. The past progressive refers to a longer background action or situation; the simple past refers to a shorter action or event that happened in the middle of the longer action.

• I was having a bath when the telephone rang.
• As I was driving down the street, I saw Peter.
• They were sleeping when the thieves broke in.