past progressive tense

past continuous tense

Also called the past progressive, the past continuous tense is used to describe something that was in progress at a certain moment in the past.

It is called the past continuous because it uses the past tense of the auxiliary verb be (was or were) followed by the present participle of the main verb (which is used to describe an action that is or was continuously happening).

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

past progressive tense - a progressive tense used to describe on-going action in the past; "`I had been running' is an example of the past progressive" past progressive continuous tense, imperfect, imperfect tense, progressive, progressive tense - a tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going

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