Forms:I was studing English.
We use the past progressive to say that something was in progress around a particular past time.
What were you doing at eight o'clock yesterday evening? I was studing English.(Not What did you do…？~ I studied English.)
The past progressive is used for temporary actions and situations. When we talk about longer, more permanent situations we use the simple past.
It happened while I was living in Canada last year.
I lived in Canada for ten years while I was a child.
Compare with simple past : we often use the past progressive together with a simple past tense. The past progressive refers to a longer 'background' action or situationl the simple past refers to a shorter action or event that happened in the middle of the longer action, or that interrupted it.
As I was walking down the road, I saw Jane.
Mozart died while he was composing the Requiem.
Because we often use the past progressive to talk about something that is a 'background', not the main 'news', we can make something seem less important by using this tense.
I had lunch with the President yesterday. (important piece of news)
I was having lunch with the President yesterday, and she said …(as if there was nothing special for the speaker about lunching with the President)
