Past Progressive
过去进行式
We use the past progressive to talk about something that happened in the past
over a period of time.
我们用过去进行式来表示
Structure
句型
To make the past progressive, we use the past form of “be” + ing form of a verb
(just like the ing form of the verb that we use for the present progressive)
我们用过去式的“be”+动词ing的形式来组成过去进行式的句型
例如：
I was walking.
We were talking.
They were eating.
Negative Statements
否定形式
To make a negative sentence, we add “not” in between the past form of “be” and the ing form of the the verb.
我们用过去式的“be”+动词ing之间加“not”的形式来组成过去进行式的句型
例如：
I was not eating.
They were not running.
We were not playing.
We can make negative past progressive statements shorter by using
wasn’t instead of was not and weren’t instead of were not
我们可以用“wasn’t”和“weren’t”来表示“was”和“were”的否定形式
例如：
I wasn’t eating.
They weren’t talking.
To make questions, we put the past form of “be” before the subject.
在疑问句中，我们把“be”放在句子的前面
例如：
Was he eating?
Were they talking?
We use the past simple to talk about something that happened before and is finished.
我们用一般过去式说某件事情已经发生或者结束
例如：
I opened the door.
I dropped the cup.
I woke up early this morning.
We use the past progressive to talk about something that was happening before, but for a period of time.
我们用过去进行式说某事在过去的一段时间正在发生
例如：
Yesterday I was talking to my brother.
(the emphasis is on the progress)
We use the past progressive to talk about something that happened at a special time in the past.
我们用过去进行式谈论某事发生在过去特定的时间
例如：
I was watching TV yesterday evening.
Last night between 7:00 and 8:00 I was studying.
We use the past simple to talk about things that happened one after another.
我们用一般过去式讨论事情一个接一个地发生
例如：
Yesterday I was hungry, so I went to a restaurant and ate a sandwich.
We use the past progressive for things that happened at the same time.
我们用过去进行式谈论几件事情同时发生
例如：
Yesterday I was talking to my brother while I was eating my dinner.
If we want to talk about one action that happened while another action was already happening, we use the past simple and the past progressive together.
如果我们谈论一件事发生的时候另一件事已经正在发生的时候，我们同时使用一般过去式和过去进行式。
例如：
While I was talking to my brother, somebody called me on the telephone.
Somebody called me on the telephone when I was talking to my brother.
