Using the Past Continuous A past point in time Someone broke into the school and stole all our grammar books The police suspect that the crime was committed by some very enthusiastic English students What were you doing at o’clock last night? I was playing football with my friend Becks Honest Governor NOTE: We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at a particular time in the past The action had already started at this time, but had not finished Questions Was he travelling through time? While we were talking to the police they mentioned a very strange case that they were working on last year Apparently they found a body in the middle of a field The body was lying face down and the limbs were pointing out at very strange angles Can you guess what the poor man was doing immediately before his death? A past period Complete the sentences using the past continuous: I didn’t get any sleep last night because……………… …………………………………….……….….all day yesterday …………………………………… …… for the whole morning I didn’t sleep last night because the damn cats were fighting ……………………………….…………… during the afternoon …………………………………………… ………….… last August NOTE: We use the past continuous to say that an action was in progress at every moment during a period of time / to say that an action in the past was temporary Interrupted past actions I was finishing my homework when a dog Complete the sentences: ………………………………………………… and suddenly an angel appeared came and ate I was watching the television when …………………… ………………………… it …………………………………………… while he was playing computer games While …………………………………… I saw………………………………… NOTE: We use the past continuous together with the past simple The past continuous refers to a "longer" or "background" action that was in progress; the past simple refers to a shorter action that interrupted the longer action, or happened in the middle of it Repeated actions in the past Complete the sentences using the past continuous: When I was young I ……….…………………………………… ……….… My friends………………………………………………………………………… My mum was always saying that if I ate too many carrots I’d turn into one My parents …………………………………………………………….………… My grandmother ………………………………………………… ……… My teacher ……………………………………………………………………… NOTE: We use the past continuous with words such as always to talk about things that happened repeatedly Verbs that aren’t used We not normally use some verbs in the past continuous tense, because they are not normally action verbs These verbs include: believe, belong, depend, hate, know, like, love, mean, need, prefer, realise, suppose, want, understand They knew each other very well They were knowing each other very well Trinity 6: Using the Past Continuous in Conversation Useful lexis I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that… I watching TV the other day and …… Actually, I was reading about this last month In fact, I was reading an article on fashion yesterday My friends and I were always getting into trouble at school While I was travelling in Spain I bought a fan and some castanets I was thinking about joining a gym but I don’t know if I’ll have time to go Have you had any bad travel experiences? Once, when was I was visiting a friend in England our plane was delayed by hours Do you travel a lot? Yes I like to escape from Guadalajara whenever I have time Actually I was planning a trip to Italy with my friend the other day Where will you travel to next? If I have enough money I’ll hire a house in France this summer I was looking at prices on the internet this morning Did you receive any pocket money when you were young? My parents only gave me £2 per week I was always begging them for more Is fashion important to you? No it isn’t I was watching a programme the other day and the presenter was wearing some fashionable green trousers They looked ridiculous Do you ever read fashion magazines? Yes I read Marie Clair and Vogue In fact I was reading Vogue this morning and I saw a good article on summer clothes Did you were any crazy fashions when you were young? Yes I was always colouring my hair and wearing ripped jeans to look like my favourite pop star Did you ever break the rules at your school? Yes I was always getting in trouble at school For example once when I was doing an experiment in science I burned my friend’s hair Do you ever work out? I never go to the gym but I go running with my dog Actually I was running with him this morning How can people be healthier? We were talking about this in class the other day I think you have to regular exercise You also need to have a healthy diet Is it possible to learn a language on-line? I was doing some English exercise on line last month They’re useful to practice grammar rules structures but you need a teacher to correct your pronunciation Key Exercise 1: The man was parachuting but his parachute didn’t open