There are nineteen conjugated forms for verbs in the English language. Both native speakers and English language learners must learn these nineteen verb forms in order to fully understand and effectively communicate in the English language. The following sections explain what the past progressive is as well as the formation and use of English verbs in the past progressive aspect.
English Verbs and the Past Progressive
English verbs that are conjugated express a combination of tense, aspect, voice, and mood. Tense is the grammaticalized expression of time and roughly corresponds to actual time. Aspect is the grammaticalized expression of temporal structure and corresponds to duration. Mood is the expression of modality, or the expression of possibility, necessity, and contingency. Voice is the expression of relationships between predicate and nominal functions such as subject and object. The past progressive typically refers to verbs in the past tense, progressive aspect, indicative mood, and active voice.
The past progressive can be defined as a verb form that expresses an incomplete or ongoing action or state that began, continued, and ended in the past but over a longer period of time than the completed actions expressed by the simple past. For example, the sentence The baby was crying contains the verb phrase was crying, which is an example of the past progressive. The use of the past progressive in this example indicates both that the baby began crying in the past and continued to cry over a period of time before stopping.
Formation of the Past Progressive
The past progressive, like the majority of verb forms in English, is periphrastic. Periphrasis means that a "phrase of two or more words that perform a single grammatical function that would otherwise be expressed by the inflection of a single word." Verbs in the past progressive are therefore formed by a past tense form of the verb be followed by a present participle. The verb phrase patterns for the past progressive are as follows:
- first person singular – was + present participle – I was making a pot roast.
- second person singular – were + present participle – Were you burning the garbage?
- third person singular – was + present participle – The man was wearing a top hat.
- first person plural – were + present participle – We were raising chickens.
- second person plural – was + present participle – You were publishing a newsletter.
- third person plural – were + present participle – They were supplying the glitter.
Notice that, similar to the present tense forms in the present progressive, all past tense forms of the verb be are irregular.
Use of the Past Progressive
Because the past progressive expresses ongoing or incomplete actions or states in the past, the verb form most often occurs in sentences that express the following situations:
- Past actions or states that progressed in time in the past
- Past actions or states that ended from an interruption including specific times
- Past actions or states that occurred simultaneously
- Describing the atmosphere of the past
- Past actions or states that are repetitive and irritating
For example:
- My daughter was whining all morning.
- She was showering when the doorbell rang.
- The soup was boiling while the bread was baking.
- The storm clouds were rolling in as I drove down the highway.
- My sister was always stealing my clothes.
The past perfect is a verb form in English that expresses incomplete or ongoing actions or states that started, continued, and ended in the past. Both native English speakers and ESL students must learn to form and use English verbs in the past progressive in order to fully use and understand verbs the English language.
Sources
Hopper, Paul J. A Short Course in Grammar. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1999.
"Past Continuous." English Page. 26 Jan. 2010. Language Dynamics.
Heather Marie Kosur - About Me I earned a BA in English studies with a minor in creative writing from Illinois State University in May 2007 and an MS in ...
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