1. This is the most common use of the past progressive. In this use, the past time reference is usually indicated by a temporal adverbial or implied by the context.

2. In colloquial speech, the past progressive is sometimes used to show what one says is casual, unimportant and aimless, whereas the use of the simple past means differently.

3. 'I was eating when the phone rang' is an example of the past progressive.

4. The new concepts of the strong Markov property and rlaxed past progressive measurability on two-parameter processes are introduced in this paper.

5. They were up talking and laughing all night last night. In this lecture we will learn how to describe ongoing action in the past using the past progressive tense.

6. Write the following sentence in the simple past tense, past progressive tense and future tense.

7. To state a mere past fact, we use simple past; to lay emphasis on the duration of the action, we use the past progressive.

8. I had been running' is an example of the past progressive.