NB 2 - What were you doing when... PAST CONTINUOUS

Dear students & readers of this blog,

After revising the tenses we studied last year in Basic 1, the time has come to move on and study something new. A new tense.

THE PAST CONTINUOUS

As it is a new tense for us, we need to know some things about it.

FORM

Simple! BE + -ING. Please find a fully conjugated verb below:

And don't forget short answers!!! Short answers are formed with the auxiliary verbs WAS/WERE.

Were you reading? YES, I WAS / NO, I WASN'T

Were they reading? YES, THEY WERE / NO, THEY WEREN'T

USE

We usually use the Past Continuous in the following situations:

• To describe an action in progress at a specific moment in the past.

         E.g. Last night at 9 I was watching TV.

• For an action that was in progress when a shorter action (in the past simple interrupted it.

         E.g. I was watching TV when the telephone rang. 

Have a look at this video that illustrates this use:

• To describe the context at the beginning of a narration or story.

         E.g. The house was silent. John was looking through the window, while Linda was reading a magazine. The clock was ticking, when suddenly...

For a more detailed grammar explanation, click on this wonderful link from the BBC English Learning site.

And now, some practice. Listen to Naziru, Ly and Fernando talk about what they were doing on a memorable day in their lives.

(source: bbc.co.uk/learningenglish)