Spanish Tenses: The Past Progressive

19 Sep, 2009 in Uncategorized by Julio Foppoli

THE PAST PROGRESSIVE – EL PASADO PROGRESIVO

The situations in which you use this tense are the same both in English as in Spanish. Consequently, we are going to see some examples and we are not going to concentrate on when or when not to use this tense as you will do it intuitively if you native language is English.

This tense, EL PASADO PROGRESIVO, is used when you say sentences such as..

I was working.	Estaba trabajando. / Trabajaba
They were studying.	Ellos estaban estudiando ahora.
We were selling a novel	Estábamos vendiendo una novela.
He was eating a lot.	Él estaba comiendo mucho.
She was leaving in two days.	Estaba partiendo en dos díasor..
	partía en dos días.

How to form EL PASADO PROGRESIVO in 3 easy steps

1 Take the verb in the infinitive form…				trabajar	comer	partir

2 Drop the infinitive ending…				trabaj-	com-	part-

3 Add the verb ESTAR (to be) and� past progressive ending…
Yo	estaba	I was		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Tú	estabas	You were (informal)		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Usted Él – Ella	estaba	You were (formal) s-he was		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Nosotros	estábamos	We were		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Vosotros	estabais	You all were		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Ustedes	estaban	You all were		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo
Ellos	estaban	They were		trabajando	comiendo	partiendo


Now it is your turn!
Conjugate the verbs in all the persons.

		(caminar)
Yo
Tú			Tip!
Usted Él – Ella			In verbs ending in -AR, the -ing form in English corresponds to the ending -ando in Spanish.
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos


		(beber)
Yo
Tú			Tip!
Usted Él – Ella			In verbs ending in -ER or -IR, the -ing form in English corresponds to the ending -iendo in Spanish.
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos


		(vivir)
Yo
Tú
Usted Él – Ella
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos

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Published on 19 Sep, 2009 in Uncategorized by Julio Foppoli

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