The past continuous Tense

1. The past continuous Tense

2. The Past Continuous Tense It was raining very hard when the bus left the school. When we arrived home, my Aunt Carol and Uncle Arthur were waiting for us. They told us to run into their basement. When I looked up the road, I saw that a tornado was coming towards our house. We all ran towards the shelter. But it was too late. The tornado was passing over us while we were trying to get down the stairs. We were closing the door when the wind suddenly pulled it off. The noise was as loud as a train, and it was very dark. My uncle was holding me down when suddenly the tornado lifted him and threw him against a wall. Everybody was screaming for help while the tornado was throwing things on top of us. Suddenly the wind stopped. It became very quiet. My uncle and sister were hurt, but we all survived.

3. The Past Continuous Tense Positive: Subject + Past “tobe” + PresentParticiple (-ing) Negative: Subject + Past “tobe” + NOT + PresentParticiple (-ing) Interrogative: Past “tobe” + Subject + PresentParticiple (-ing)?

4. The Past Continuous Tense

5. The Past Continuous Tense Spelling rules foradding –ingtotheverb (I): A. General rule: verb (base form) + ing. e.g.eat, read, look, clean → eating, reading, looking, cleaning B. Verbsendingwithsilent final -e dropthe e, thenadd –ing. e.g.love, live, make, take → loving, living, making, taking C. 1- syllableverbsendingConsonantVowelConsonant (CVC) doublethe final consonant, thenadd –ing. e.g.run, sit, stop, swim → running, sitting, stopping, swimming

6. The Past Continuous Tense Spelling rules foradding –ingtotheverb (II): D. 2- syllableverbsendingwith stress onthe las syllable, doublethe final consonant, thenadd –ing. e.g.refer, begin, prefer, control → referring, beginning, preferring, controlling E.Verbsending –l doublethe final consonant, thenadd –ing. e.g.travel, cancel → travelling, cancelling F.Verbsending –iechange –ieto –y, thenadd –ing. e.g. die, lie → dying, lying

7. The Past Continuous Tense • TIME EXPRESSIONS • A concrete time in the past: • yesterday morning / afternoon / evening • at seven o’clock • two days / weeks / months ago • last night / Friday / week / month / year • while / as

8. The Past Continuous Tense • USES • We use thePastContinuousto: • Talkaboutactions in progress at a particular time in thepast. • At seveno’clock, I wasstudyingfor my English test at home. • Describe twoor more parallelactionswhichwere happening at thesame time in thepast. • I wasstudyingEnglishwhile my parentsweremakingdinner. • Use thePastContinuoustoindicatethat a longeraction in thepastwasinterrupted. Theinterruptionisusually a shorteraction in the Simple Past. • Whenthephonerang, shewaswritinga letter.

9. Past Simple Vs. Past Continuous CONTRAST: Past Simple and PastContinuous • We use PAST SIMPLE to describe actions finished at the time of speaking while we use PAST CONTINUOUS to talkaboutactions in progress at a particular time in thepast. • Yesterday, I read a veryinterestingarticleonthenewspaper. • I wasreading a newspaper at halfpast ten. • We use PAST CONTINUOUS toindicatethat a longeraction in thepastwasinterrupted. Theinterruptionisusually a shorteraction in the SIMPLE PAST. “When” isusuallyfollowedby PAST SIMPLE • Wewere sleeping whenthephonerang. • Whilewewere sleeping, thephonerang.