The Past Continuous Tense

1. The Past Continuous Tense To show what a person was doing at a particular time in the past, we use the Past Continuous Tense.

2. she was playing badminton at this time yesterday. was cycling She at 9:00am yesterday. They were playing at 6:30 last night. table tennis was / were verb+ing

3. Past continuous affirmative form Was • I • He • She • It • We • The • You Verb with ING Were

4. Past continuous interrogative form Was • I • He • She • It • We • The • You Verb with ING Were

5. Past continuous negative form Wasn’t • I • He • She • It • We • The • You Verb with ING Weren’t

6. play Simon Simon _________ football at 3 pm yesterday. was playing go The children The children __________ to school at 8 am yesterday. Weren’t going

7. Exercise. Derek Derek was swimming at 6 am yesterday. Mandy Mandy was feeding her dog at 4 o’clock yesterday. Sam & Jess Sam and Jess were eating pasta at 8 pm last night.

8. We often use the past continuous and past simple tense in the same sentence. We do this when we want to talk about a shorter activity that happened during a longer activity in the past.

9. Sam broke his leg yesterday. But when exactly? when practicing gymnastics Sam brokehis leg when he was practicing gymnastics. shorter action longer action

10. cut her finger cut her finger Nancy ___________ when she ___________a pie. was cooking Cook a pie watch TV were watching They _______________ TV when she _________. came come play football We ____________ football when it suddenly _______. were playing rained rain

11. A fire broke out at 8 o’clock last night! What were the people doing when the fire broke out? Click on the flat to describe what the people were doing!

12. Sometimes we use the past continuous tense to talk about two or more actions which were taking place at the same time in the past. Example I was playing TV games while mother was cooking. We were studying the baby was crying. while

13. It’s 3:00pm last Sunday. What were they doing? • Grandfather • Grandmother • Cindy 4. Billy 5. Father 6. Mother

14. What were they doing one hour later? Exercise Grandfather ____________TV while grandmother____________. was watching was knitting Cindy _________ her homework while Nicky ____________to the Hi-fi. was doing was listening Father ____________ beer while mother ___________ some water. was drinking was boiling

15. What was the woman in flat 4A doing when the fire broke out? She _____________ when the fire broke out. was knitting

16. What were the couple in flat 4B doing when the fire broke out? were singing The couple ___________ karaoke songs when the fire broke out.

17. What were the couple in flat 3A doing when the fire broke out? were having The couple ___________ dinner when the fire broke out.

18. What was the woman in flat 3B doing when the fire broke out? was talking The woman __________ on the phone when the fire broke out.

19. What was the man in flat 2A doing when the fire broke out? The man in Flat 2A ___________ a suitcase when the fire broke out. was packing

20. What was the boy in flat 2B doing when the fire broke out? The boy in Flat 2B ___________ TV games when the fire broke out. was playing

21. What was the woman in flat 1A doing when the fire broke out? The woman in Flat 1A __________ up her flat when the fire broke out. was tidying

22. What were the women in flat 1B doing when the fire broke out? The women in Flat 1B ___________ mahjong when the fire broke out. were playing

23. THE END