17th day of class

Day schedule: July 8th, 2020

- Past simple or Past continuous

- Practice exercises
- Online practice exercises
- Past continuous conversation questions

Past simple:

Use: To talk about finished or completed actions in the past / to describe

sequence of events in chronological order

Structure: To be: Subject + was / were + complement

Other verbs: Subject + 2nd verb column + complement

Auxiliary verb: to be: was / were – other verbs: did (negations / questions)
Was not (wasn’t) / were not (weren’t) – did not (didn’t)

Examples:
(+) She was in Cali yesterday
(-) She wasn’t in Cali yesterday
(?) Was she in Cali yesterday?
Yes, she was / No, she wasn’t

(+) We ate pizza last night

(-) We didn’t eat pizza last night
(?) Did we eat pizza last night?
Yes, we did / No, we didn’t

Present Past Past participle

Eat Ate Eaten
Walk Walked Walked
Run Ran Run
Speak Spoke Spoken
Drink Drank Drunk
Negative and Affirmative sentences
Interrogative sentences Past simple
Past simple
- I woke up at 6:00 a.m. Then, I took a shower. Finally, I got dressed.

Past continuous / progressive:

Use: To talk about actions in progress at a specific moment in the past

Structure: Subject + was / were + verb – ING + complement

Auxiliary verbs: was / were - was not (wasn’t) / were not (weren’t)

Example:
(+) He was playing soccer at 3:30 p.m. yesterday
(-) He wasn’t playing soccer at 3:30 p.m. yesterday
(?) Was he playing soccer at 3:30 p.m. yesterday?
Yes, he was
No, he wasn’t
Past simple and past continuous:

Use: To talk about actions which were in progress in the past when something
else happened.

Jenny was watching TV when the lights went off

Longer action shorter action

Mr. Robinson was cooking when his wife arrived at home

When – Past simple action

While / as – Past continuous action

It started to rain, while Juan was fixing his car

While: Two actions were happening simultaneously / at the same time

While Lenny was writing on her notebook, her mother was preparing
breakfast
Camila arrived home, as I was getting ready to leave

Rodriguez arrived at his office. Then, he turned on his computer and he

started working on the report
Practice exercise:

Ø Lucy had (have) her baby while she was studying (study) at the university
Ø Mr. Hincapie was eating (eat) lunch when his phone rang (ring)
Ø Tatiana learned (learn) English. Later, she went (go) to the USA
Ø While Andrés was working (work), he was paying (pay) attention to our
class
Ø When Jason graduated (graduate) from school, he was studying (study)
French at an academy
Ø She didn't come (not / come) because it was raining (rain) very heavily
Ø They weren’t playing / didn’t play (not / play) well because Messi wasn’t
(not / be) in the soccer field
Ø Was he swimming (He / swim) in the river when his mother called (call)
him?
 Past Simple or Past Continuous
Instruction: Fill out the following blanks with the verbs in parenthesis with either the Past
simple or the Past continuous tense.

1) What were you doing (you/do) when I called (call) you last night?
2) I was sitting (sit) in a cafe when you called (call).
3) When you arrived (arrive) at the party, who was (be) there?
4) Susie was watching (watch) a film when she heard (hear) the noise.
5) Yesterday I went (go) to the library, next I had (have) a swim, later I met (meet) Julie for
coffee.
6) We were playing (play) tennis when John hurt (hurt) his ankle.
7) What were they doing (they/do) at 10pm last night - it was really noisy?
8) He was taking (take) a shower when the telephone rang (ring).
9) When I walked (walk) into the room, everyone was working (work).
10) He was living (live) in Russia when the Revolution started (start).
__________ / 20

Conversation Questions on Past Continuous Tense

1. What were you doing three hours ago?
2. What were you doing at seven o’clock this morning?
3. What were you thinking about few minutes ago?
4. Were you watching TV last night? Yes, No, Why?
5. Was it raining today morning?
6. Were you studying English two years ago? Yes, No, Why?
7. What were you doing at ten p.m. last night?
8. What were you doing at noon/midday yesterday?
9. Who were you talking to a few hours ago?
10. What was our teacher doing/saying a few minutes ago?
11. What were you doing at seven o’clock p.m. last Saturday?
12. What were you doing at ten o’clock yesterday morning?
13. What do you think I was doing five hours ago?

Online practice exercises

Exercise 1:

https://agendaweb.org/exercises/verbs/past-continuous/past-simple-past-
continuous-write

Exercise 2:

https://agendaweb.org/exercises/verbs/past-continuous/simple-continuous-1