¿Qué estaba haciendo?

PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

Past continuous/ past progressive

PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

✗ Use of the past continuous tense:

✗ How to form the past continuous tense

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Past continuous Tense
The Past Continuous is used to express what you were doing at a
particular moment in the past.
It stresses that an action was taking place at that very moment.

• She was reading the newspaper.

• I was walking to school.
• He was driving through the street.
• They were talking on the phone.

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Past continuous Tense
The Past Continuous is formed using:

✗ The imperfect tense of the verb estar:

o estaba
o estabas
o estaba
o estábamos
o estaban

✗ The present participle, which is formed as follows:

o ar verbs: drop the ar and add ando
o er and ir verbs: drop the er and add iendo

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 past CONTINUOUS TENSE
hablar – to speak

¡ojo!
estaba hablando I was speaking
estabas hablando you were speaking If the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in a
estaba hablando he/she/it/you(formal) was/were speaking vowel, -iendo becomes -yendo.
estábamos hablando we were speaking
estaban hablando they/you were speaking
leer
comer – to eat
estaba comiendo I was eating leiendo leyendo
estabas comiendo you were eating
estaba comiendo he/she/it/you(formal) was/were eating to read = reading leer = leyendo
estábamos comiendo we were eating to believe = believing creer = creyendo
estaban comiendo they/you were eating to go = going ir = yendo
escribir – to write
estaba escribiendo I was writing
estabas escribiendo you were writing
estaba escribienndo he/she/it/you(formal) was/were writing
estábamos escribiendo we were writing
estaban escribiendo they/you were writing

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Irregular Present Participles
Some Present Participles are Irregular and
must be memorized. Here are a few:

to sleep = sleeping = dormir = durmiendo

to die = dying = morir = muriendo
to say, tell = saying, telling = decir = diciendo
to feel = feeling = sentir = sintiendo
to correct = correcting = corregir = corrigiendo

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past CONTINUOUS TENSE

She was reading the newspaper. Estaba leyendo el periódico.

I was walking to school. Estaba andando al colegio.

He was driving through the street. Estaba conduciendo por la calle.

They were talking on the phone. Estaban hablando por teléfono.

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Vamos a Practicar Fill in the blank with the past
continuous of the verb in brackets

1. Yo estaba cocinando los burritos cuando me llamaste. (cocinar)

2. Pedro ……..….. …………… mucho y no esuchó sonar el teléfono. (trabajar)
3. Ellos ……..…….. …………… para el examen. (estudiar)
4. Yo ………….. ……………… los libros. (leer)
5. Tú ……..….. ……………… la verdad. (decir)
6. Nosotros ………..…. ……………… a mi madre. (escribir)
7. ¿ ……….... ……………… ellas? (dormir)
8. ¿ ……..….. ……………… Uds. en inglés? (hablar)
9. Yo …………… ……………… la situación. (explicar)

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