The past progressive tense, also called the past continuous tense, emphasises a continuing or incomplete action in the past. We can use this tense to express:
an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past,
two actions that were taking place at the same time,
a past action that was interrupted by a second past action.
The signal words for the past progressive are: while, as long as etc.
To conjugate the past progressive tense, we use the past tense form of the auxiliary verb be and the main verb in its -ing form.
