GRAMMAR Exercise C [B1+] Past Progressive or Present Progressive

PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE

We use past progressive for

  • events that happened in the past over a period of time

was/were + main verb-ing


Past progressive sentences

1. Positive sentences

  • You were telling me earlier about your diet. Tell me more.
  • Yesterday I was talking about foods that made my cramps worse.

2. Negative sentences

Here, the ‘not’ comes after ‘was’ or ‘were’.

  • I wasn’t holding on as I got out of the shower, and I fell.
  • So you weren’t having any dizziness before last week, correct?

Past progressive questions

Only use the helping verbs ‘was’ or ‘were’

The word order changes.

‘was’ or ‘were’ + (person/place/thing) +…-ing …?

1. Positive questions

  • Was the physiotherapy helping at all?
  • Were you trying to do more exercise outdoors?

2. Negative questions

Here, ‘not’ comes after ‘was’ or’ were’ and before the subject (you, he, she and so on)

  • Weren’t you getting any relief from the medication?

Past progressive w-questions (who, what, when, where, why, which, how)

In w-questions, the w-word goes before the ‘were’ and ‘was’:

  • What were you taking before now for your pain and diarrhea?
  • How was your mother managing before the home visits started?

SPEAKING EXERCISE C

practice repeating aloud each example sentence in this tutorial. focus on the common collocations, running them together until they flow as one expression.  the collocations are underlined.


GRAMMAR EXERCISE C

Past progressive or present progressive?

Instructions: Choose the correct option.

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