Forming the progressive imperfect with estar + present participle (El Imperfecto progresivo/continuo)

Spanish past tenses have a continuous (progressive) form each to express an action which is continuing or ongoing in the past.

Learn about El Imperfecto progresivo in Spanish

In the case of El Pretérito Imperfecto, this is how the progressive tense is formed.

It follows this pattern for most regular verbs:

It is very similar to the English past continuous. Look at and listen to these examples:

For irregular present paritiples/gerunds see List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -iendo and List of Spanish irregular gerunds/present participles of the form -yendo

See also: Forming the present progressive/continuous in Spanish with estar + present participle (El Presente Progresivo)