What is the past progressive tense?
The past progressive tense describes an action in progress around a specific time in the past. For example: What were you doing at 10:00 this morning? I was getting ready for school (at 10:00 this morning). What were you doing when I called you? I was walking the dog (when you called me). Note that in all the sentences, a particular time is referenced. In the first set of examples, both the question and the answer mention 10:00 a.m. In the second example, when you called me refers to a specific time which both speakers understand. (Perhaps, for example, the phone call was placed on a Saturday afternoon around 3:00. Both speakers know this, so the time is specific.) With more general references to time, use the simple past, as in: What did you do last night? I watched TV last night. What is the sentence structure? The sentence structure is as follows: subject | be verb in the past tense | main verb + ing | object/complement (time reference) Alexis | was | meeting | with her boss at 10:0
