ENGLISH 27-05-2020

GRAMMAR: THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY!
Today we're going to learn how to use the Past Continuous tense.

1. Firstly let's review how to form the Past Continuous: 
Positive form: subject + was /were + verb-ing.

I He She                    was It	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday.
We You                   were They	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday.

Negative form: subject + was /were + not + verb-ing.

I He She            was not  (wasn’t) It	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday.
We You           were not  (weren’t) They	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday.

Interrogative form: put was/were in front of the subject ⇢ Was/were +subject + verb-ing?

I                          he Was                  she                                     it	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday?
we  Were               you                          they	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday?

Wh-questions: put the question word at the beginning of the interrogative form.

When Where Why	I                           he was                   she                                     it	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday?
When Where Why	we were                 you                          they	reading    “War and Peace” yesterday?

Now a little bit of practice:

Click on the link to practise positive, negative and question forms of the Past Continuous.  ➨ Grammar Exercise

2. Now let's see how to use the Past Continuous:

The Past Continuous tense to talk about:

Two past events  happening at the same time. Parallel actions with AND.	One event interrupting another event in the past with WHILE and WHEN
I was watching  TV and eating popcorn. Dad was making dinner and Mum was laying the table.	While I was watching TV, the phone rang.   Or The phone rang while I was watching TV.    Or The phone rang when I was watching TV.

As you see the Past Simple tense (rang) "interrupts" the Past Continuous tense (was watching).

3. Watch this video and see some uses of the Past Continuous through this short story:

What a day they had, didn't they?!

4. Let's do some exericises:

a) Copy these sentences in your notebook and complete them with while (mientras) or and.

b) Open you Activity book on page 127 and complete exercise 1.

Check your answers:

a)

1. and

2. while

3. and

4. while

b) 

1. -  when

2. - were sitting

3. - were playing

4. - was ringing

5. - was packing

6. - came

Tomorrow at your speaking sessions you're going to practise these grammatical forms a bit more with Sai and Elene.

Moreover tomorrow you're going to take an online TEST on UNIT 5 "Spain's Politics". Go through the Social Sciences blog entries from the 14-04-2020.
To find them quicker, first open the blog. In the upper left corner you can see 3 horizontal stripes =. Click on these stripes to open a new window. Inside the menu click on Labels (Etiquetas) and then choose Social Sciences. It will take you to the entries of this category.

HAVE A NICE FAY!