Each Spanish past tense has a continuous (progressive) form to express an action which was ongoing in the past.
In the case of El pretérito Indefinido progresivo, it follows this pattern for most regular verbs:
Estar in El Pretérito Indefinido + |
-ando (-AR verbs) |
-iendo (-ER and -IR verbs) |
It is very similar to the English past continuous.
Look at and listen to these examples:
ESTAR |
Verbs ending in -AR |
Verbs ending in -ER, -IR |
estuve |
llamando |
aprendiendo |
estuviste |
||
estuvo |
||
estuvimos |
||
estuvisteis |
||
estuvieron |
See also: Forming El Presente Progresivo with estar + gerund (present progressive) and Forming El Imperfecto Progresivo with estar + gerund (imperfect progressive).
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