Question

When to use the past progressive tense

Answer 1

The past continuous (also called past progressive) is a verb tense which is used to show that an ongoing past action was happening at a specific moment of interruption, or that two ongoing actions were happening at the same time.

Answer 2

You can use the past progressive tense to show an ongoing past action.

Examples:

Anything like "have been", or "was [verb]".

Sentence:

The cat was playing in the garden.

-Happened in the past

-Action verb "playing"