Spanish Past Progressive

Spanish Past Progressive Tense

In the Present Progressive lesson of the Grammer section , you learned about how to say, “I am walking,” “I am singing,” or “I am eating” in Spanish. What you didn’t know was that there is a past progressive tense that is EXACTLY THE SAME as the present progressive, except that the verb estar is in the imperfect tense.

First of all, a quick review. If you want to say that you are doing something, you will use a conjugated form of estar followed by the present participle of the verb (formed by adding –ando or -iendo).

I am walking. = Estoy caminando
I am singing. = Estoy cantando
I am eating. = Estoy comiendo

Now, let’s say that you want to talk about what you were doing in the past. Use the exact same format that you learned … except substitute an imperfect form of the verb estar for the present tense.

I was walking. = Estaba caminando
I was singing. = Estaba cantando
I was eating. = Estaba comiendo

Why use the imperfect rather than the preterite? Because an action that is progressive is also continuous, and continuous actions require the imperfect.

Por ejemplo:

In the next section we'll talk about Verbs that Say One Thing and Mean It

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