The past continuous tense is a verb tense that is normally used to indicate an ongoing process in the past, that was happening around the same time. The past progressive tense refers to an action or a series of actions that had already begun at some time in the past but the action is still in progress or it stopped is not known.
In other words, It’s when two actions happen at the same time in the past—usually for a period of time or for an event that was interrupted by another action in the past.
Past Continuous Tense – فعل ماضی جاری
اس Tense کےجملوں کے آخر میں “رہا تھا” “رہے تھے” “رہی تھی” وغیرہ لفظ آتے ہیں۔ اس زمانہ کے جملوں میں ایسے کام کا بیان ہوتا ہے جو ماضی میں چل رہا تھا۔
انگریزی میں ترجمہ کرنے کے طریقے
Past Progressive Tense – Verb and Auxilary Verb
The auxiliary/helping verbs to form this tense is (Was) and (Were).
(Was) is used with the singular subjects except for the second person. The first-person singular (I) and the third-person singular (He, She, It) use (was) as the auxiliary verb.
(Were) is used with the plural subjects (We, They) with the addition of second-person singular (you).
| I | Was |
| He | Was |
| She | Was |
| It | Was |
| You | Were |
| We | Were |
| They | Were |
The present participle form of the verb is used in the continuous past tense. The present participle form is the first or base form of the verb with the addition of -ing at the end.
| Go | Going |
| Talk | Talking |
| Eat | Eating |
| Chase | Chasing |
| Be | Being |
Past Continuous Tense – Assertive sentences
An assertive sentence is a sentence that makes a statement or asserts information. Assertive sentences are usually followed by a period.
We can also say that an assertive/affirmative sentence is a sentence that contains information that is true.
Structure
Subject + Auxiliary (Was/Were) + Verb+ing (present participle) + Object.
Example
First Person
| I was having dinner when he called. | میں رات کا کھانا کھا رہا تھا جب اس نے فون کیا۔ |
| We were trying hard for exams. | ہم امتحانات کے لیے بہت کوشش کر رہے تھے۔ |
Second Person
| You were traveling by train. | آپ ٹرین میں سفر کر رہے تھے۔ |
| You were drinking coffee when I arrived. | جب میں پہنچا تو آپ کافی پی رہے تھے۔ |
Third Person
| It was raining yesterday. | کل بارش ہو رہی تھی۔ |
| They were playing cricket after college. | وہ کالج کے بعد کرکٹ کھیل رہے تھے۔ |
Past Progressive Tense – Negative sentences
If you’re like most students, you’ve probably been taught that the past imperfect tense is used for describing ongoing events in the past. But what about when you want to make a general statement about an event that happened in the past but wasn’t necessarily ongoing? That’s where the negative version of the past continuously comes in!
Structure
Subject + Auxiliary (Was/Were) + Not + Verb+ing (present participle) + Object.
Example
First Person
| I was not having dinner when he called. | جب اس نے فون کیا تو میں کھانا نہیں کھا رہا تھا۔ |
| We were not trying hard for exams. | ہم امتحانات کے لیے زیادہ کوشش نہیں کر رہے تھے۔ |
Second Person
| You were not traveling by train. | آپ ٹرین میں سفر نہیں کر رہے تھے۔ |
| You were not drinking coffee when I arrived. | جب میں پہنچا تو آپ کافی نہیں پی رہے تھے۔ |
Third Person
| It was not raining yesterday. | کل بارش نہیں ہوئی تھی۔ |
| They were not playing cricket after college. | وہ کالج کے بعد کرکٹ نہیں کھیل رہے تھے۔ |
Continuous Past Tense – Interrogative Sentences
To question in the past progressive tense you just have to take the helping verb from the center to the start as we did before in all the other forms of tenses.
Structure
Auxiliary (Was/Were) + Subject + Verb+ing (present participle) + Object.
Example
First Person
| Was I having dinner when he called? | جب اس نے بلایا تو کیا میں رات کا کھانا کھا رہا تھا؟ |
| Were we trying hard for exams? | کیا ہم امتحانات کے لیے سخت کوشش کر رہے تھے؟ |
Second Person
| Were you traveling by train? | کیا آپ ٹرین میں سفر کر رہے تھے؟ |
| Were you drinking coffee when I arrived? | جب میں پہنچا تو کیا آپ کافی پی رہے تھے؟ |
Third Person
| Was it raining yesterday? | کیا کل بارش ہوئی تھی؟ |
| Were they playing cricket after college? | کیا وہ کالج کے بعد کرکٹ کھیل رہے تھے؟ |
Importance and Uses
So why should you care? Well, if you’re writing something set in the past—like a novel or historical non-fiction account—you need to know how to convey that it’s happening at a certain point in time, rather than just happening.
To do this, you use the past continuous tense. This tells your reader that the action happened over a period of time and didn’t just happen all at once (as opposed to using the simple past tense).
Here’s an example: “I was eating dinner when I realized my dog had escaped from his kennel.”
This tells your reader that I started eating dinner and then my dog got out of his kennel while I was doing so—I didn’t start eating dinner after he got out. If I eat dinner every night and then my dog got out one night while I was eating, this is how I would say it: “I ate dinner every night, and one night while I was doing so, my dog escaped from his kennel.”
Also read about Future Indefinite Tense in Urdu