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PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE

Previous Lessons : Step-11(NonProgressive Verbs), Conditional Sentence


KEY : Past progressive tense is used to express something happen in the past time when others occur. Past Progressive tense is commonly used together with Simple Past Tense.

For Examples:


I was watching TV when he knocked the door.

 
Use the conjunction /when/ or /while/ to combine both tenses.

Formula :

Subject + Be-Past + Present Participle + Object/Adverb

Study this follows!


(+) I was reading a novel.
(-) I wasnot reading a novel.
(?) Was I reading a novel?

So, place not behind the be-past to make a negative and place the be-past at the beginning of the sentence when you would like to make an interrogative sentence. Read more



Using WHILE and WHEN

For examples:

While I was learning English, my father came.
When I went to BALI, Mita sent me a line.

Note : Sent me a a line = sent me a piece of letter.

From the sentence above, we can see that WHILE is used to make a sub clause of past progressive tense and WHEN is used to make a main clause of Past Simple.