Simple Past and Past Continuous Simple Past Tense

Simple Past and Past Continuous

Simple Past Tense

• Actions, events, states that started and finished in the past (…ago, last …, yesterday… )

• Regular verbs: -ed

• Irregular verbs: 2nd column

Tell your partner – use past simple

• What did you do yesterday?

• What did you do Friday night?

• Where were you Saturday morning?

• How did you do celebrate your last birthday?

Practice: Do you have a good memory? Are you a good witness?

• Directions: Look at the following picture for one minute. Try to remember as many details as you can, but don’t write anything.

Only one minute…

• Ready, go ….

One minute…

What do you remember?

• How many people were there?

• Where were the people?

• What was hanging from the ceiling?

• What was the bank robber holding?

• What was the bank robber wearing?

• What colour was his hair?

• What was covering the bank robber’s face?

• Was the bank robber right-handed or left-handed?

• What was the bank manager doing?

• What was the bank teller doing?

• Who was walking into the bank?

• What time was it?

• What was under the bank manager’s desk?

One minute…

Past continuous

• Gebruik 1) Om te beschrijven wat bezig was in “het verleden”

• What were you doing at 9 in the evening?

• I was watching TV

• We were playing Monopoly

Past continuous

• I was

• You were

• He was

• She was ww + ing

• It was

• We were

• You were

• They were

Tell a classmate – use past continuous verbs: I was _______ing

• Where were you last Thursday at 8 p.m.? What were you doing?

• What were you doing Friday at 5 p.m.? Where were you? Who were you with?

• What were you doing Sunday morning at 7 a.m.?

• What were you doing last night at nine o’clock?

• What were you doing last Saturday afternoon?

Past Continuous, continued

• Gebruik 2) Twee bezigheden tegelijkertijd

• Sorry, I wasn’t listening to you while you were talking.

• While I was reading, he was writing.

Simple past met past continuous in één zin, gebruik 3

• past continuous geeft aan wat bezig was

• I was crossing the street …when the driver ran through the red light.

• Past simple geeft aan de actie die de handeling onderbreekt

Other examples:

• I was sleeping when the telephone rang and woke me up.

• He was driving too fast when he crashed the car.

More Examples:

• We were watching the news when the announcer made a special live report.

• I was trying to study when you called.

Form of Past Continuous

• Subject + was / were + verb+ing

• Negation:

• Subject + was / were + not + verb+ing

• Yes/ No Question:

• Was / Were + subject + + verb+ing ?

• Information Question:

• (WH) + Was / Were + subject + + verb+ing ?

Remember –ing spelling rules?

A little practice

• The telephone (ring) when I (take a shower).

• The telephone rang when I was taking a shower.

• I (eat) dinner when you (come) in.

• I was eating dinner when you came in.

• It (rain) while they (walk) home.

• It was raining while they were walking home.

• We (see) an accident when we (drive) on the freeway.

• We saw an accident when we were driving on the freeway.

A little practice 2

• She (chop) onions when she (cut) her finger.

• .She was chopping onions when she cut her finger

• We (watch) TV when the electricity (go) out.

• We were watching TV when the electricity went out.

• My dad (do) the dishes while my mum (send) an email.

• My dad was doing the dishes while my mum was sending an email.

Final Tips …

• Use while for two actions in progress at the same time in the past: Gelijktijdigheid

• She was talking while he was driving.

• Use when for an action that was in progress that was interrupted by another event in the past):

• I was just leaving when you called.

• (handeling bezig) (“storing”)

Punctuation with When and While

• When and while at the front of a sentence, use a comma:

• When you called, I was watching TV.

• While he was washing the clothes, I was doing the dishes.

• When and while in the middle of a sentence, no comma

• I was watching TV when you called.

• I was doing the dishes while he was washing the clothes.