Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Focus on Grammar 3
Part I, Unit 4
By Ruth Luman, Gabriele Steiner, and BJ Wells
Copyright © 2006. Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reporting to the Police 1
It was
I was about
having ten of
a cup in coffee,
the
morning, andwatching
and I was I was sitting
the in
Maxi’s Caféinnear
people the City
café.Park.
What
Whatdid
were
you
yousee?
doing?
Reporting to the Police 2
ToTomy myright,
Suddenly,left,there
therewaswasanother
a youngyoung
man. He
woman. was
She
man. He
drinking
was eating
snatched coffee
thea red
huge and reading
dish andacream.
of ice
briefcase newspaper.
ran Shewith
away A it
big
was
so red briefcase
enjoying
fast that it. was
no one standing
knew what wasnexthappening.
to his feet.
After the man stole the briefcase,
we were all talking loudly. The
owner of the briefcase was very
upset!
Past Progressive
Use the past progressive to describe an action
that was in progress at a specific time in the past.
10 a.m.
now
past future
was having
was eating
Be Careful!
Non-action verbs are not usually used in the
progressive. Note the exception with have.
I was
I had
having
a headache.
a headache.
stole
now future
past were enjoying
Past Progressive & Simple Past 2
snatched
now
past future
was reading
Past Progressive & Simple Past 3
now
past future
was sitting / was watching
What were you and others
Practice 1 doing? Answer the questions
using the past progressive.
Example:
What were you doing when I called this morning?
I was trying to wake up when you called.
called
1. What were you doing when the phone rang last night?
4. What was the teacher doing when you first saw her/him today?
Past Progressive with While 1
Use past progressive with while to describe two
actions in progress at the same time in the past.
no
c om
ma
came
now
past came was looking
future
looked
Form sentences with while.
Practice 2 Use the past progressive.