Past Continuous - English - Bac
Past Continuous
What exactly is the past continuous?
*Something that was happening at a certain time in the past ,
the action had already started but was
not yet finished:
Ex: At 10 o’clock my friend was doing his
home work
=> He started before 10 o’clock and
finished sometime later
*We can also use the past continuous to describe what was
happening when the main action happened:
Ex: I was eating when my boss called
Ex: were talking while the teacher
was explaining the subject
=> Two or more forms of past continuous
several things happening at the same time
*Annoying habits:
We use the past continuous and the word ""always" to talk about annoying things
which happened in the past
Ex: my teacher was always shouting at us
=> The teacher possibly still shouts at
his pupils but you no longer have that teacher
Ex: our neighbor was always making a
lot of noise
=> The neighbor might still make a
lot of noise but he might have moved house or he might have stopped making the
noise
We form the past continuous like this :
positive
|
Negative
|
Questions
|
I / he / she / it + was
You/we/they + were
+ v ing
|
I/ he / she / it +wasn't
you/we/they + weren't
+ v ing
|
Was + I/ he / she /
it + v ing +?
Were + you/ we / they + v ing?
|
The -ing form:
1-for most verbs we add-ing
ask=>asking / go=>going
2-for verbs ending with a consonant +-e , we normally leave out
-e when we add-ing
hope=> hoping/take=>taking / live => living
but we keep a double "e" before -ing
see=> seeing / agree=>agreeing
3-when a verb ends in -e , it changes to "Y "when we
add-ing :
die=> dying / lie => lying
but "Y "does not change:
hurry => hurrying
4- when a word ends with one vowel and one consonant,
we double the final consonant
get=> getting / jog => jogging
run=> running / swim=> swimming
but when it is Y , W or X we don't double the consonant
buy=> buying / draw=> drawing / stay => staying
when the final syllable is not stressed:
listen=> listening / visit => visiting / wonder=>
wondering
Practice:
Complete the sentences by putting the verbs in brackets ( ) into
the past continuous
*It ...............(snow) when I left home this morning
*I tried to explain my problem to her, but she
..................(not/listen)
*He ................(talk) on the phone when I arrived
*A lot of people ....................(wait) for the 7:30 bus
last night
*I ....................(live) in London when I met them
*I nearly had an accident this morning, a car
...................(come) towards me, but I moved quickly out of the way
* At the end of the first half of the game, they
..................(win)
*Which hotel ........................(you/ stay) in when you
lost your passport?
correction
*It was snowing (snow)
when I left home this morning
*I tried to explain my problem to her, but she wasn't listening (not/listen)
*He was talking (talk)
on the phone when I arrived
*A lot of people were waiting (wait)
for the 7:30 bus last night
*I was living (live)
in London when I met them
*I nearly had an accident this morning, a car was coming (come) towards me, but I moved
quickly out of the way
* At the end of the first half of the game, they were winning (win)
