Sentence Structure

Subject + was/were + verb + ING

I was playing badminton this time yesterday.

She was cycling at 9am yesterday.

 We use the past progressive tense to describe a past action over a period

What were they doing yesterday at 8 oclock? They were working all day.

 We use the past progressive to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time.

 We use the past progressive to say that an action in the past was temporary.

Sarah was waiting for her friend for 20 minutes yesterday. You were working in the Sales Department last month. They were living in Paris for a year.

 We often use the past progressive and past simple tense in the same sentence.
We do this when we want to talk about a shorter activity that happened during a longer activity in the past.

Sam hurt himself yesterday. But when exactly?

when jumping over the vaulting horse.

Shorter action

Longer action

cut herself was peeling

were watching
arrived

were playing rained

 The past simple and the past progressive do not mean exactly the same.

When Mary Arrived, we were When Mary Arrived, we had having dinner. dinner.

This mean that we already This mean that Mary started dinner before Mary arrived first and then we had arrived. dinner.

1. When I phoned my friends, they were playing (play) monopoly. 2. I was practicing (practice) the guitar when he came home. 3. We were cycling (cycle) all day. 4. While Alan was working (work) in his room, his friends were swimming (swim) in the pool.

4. I tried to tell them the truth but they were not listening (not / listen ) . 5. Most of the time we were sitting (sit) in the park. 6. When I arrived, they were playing (play) cards. 7. We were studying (study) English yesterday at 4:00 pm.