ENGLISH IV OCTOBER 2012 Miss. Carmen Gloria Astudillo O. Simple Past vs.

Past Progressive Tense

Remember- the simple past talks about something that happened before. It happened and it finished. Some words are regular and just have -ed added at the end like walked, helped, and played. Others are irregular and have many variations like ate, began, and slept. The past progressive talks about something that was happening before, but for a period of time. It uses was or were + verb-ing like was eating or were playing. It gives a background for something that was happening while a different event happened. Example: While I was eating, the telephone rang. So, during the time I was eating (let's say from 6:30-7:00 p.m.) somebody called my house (let's say they called at 6:49p.m.) One thing happened (simple past) during the period of time another thing was happening (past progressive.) Here is another example: They saw an old man as they were walking down the street. You can think of walking as a video. You see the movement. You see the time passing. Think of saw as a photo. It is one point of time. You don't think of the time passing. I dreamed in English when I was sleeping. She was listening to the radio when the mail came. They visited Sydney when they were traveling in Australia

Past continuous - form.

The past continuous of any verb is composed of two parts : the past tense of the verb to be (was/were), and the base of the main verb +ing. Subject They was/were were base-ing watching

Affirmative She She Was Wasn't was Negative wasn't Interrogative she Interrogative negative she reading? reading? reading reading

Example: to play, past continuous

Affirmative I was playing You were playing He, she, it was playing We were playing You were playing They were playing Negative I was not playing You were not playing She wasn't playing We weren't playing You weren't playing They weren't playing Interrogative Was I playing? Were you playing? Was she playing? Were we playing? Were you playing? Were

MORE IMPORTANT LINKS

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastcontinuous.html http://www.slideshare.net/nogueherre/past-tense-and-past-continuous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15cw9TysJDM

The Non-Continuous Verbs Categories.

Mental and Emotional Verbs

believe dislike

Communication Verbs

agree astonish

Abstract Verbs

be want cost seem need care contain owe exist

Sense Verbs

appear hear see seem smell sound taste

Possession Verbs

to possess to own to belong

deny

doubt

disagree

imagine

impress

know

mean

like

please

love

promise satisfy surprise

hate

prefer realize recognize remember suppose understand want wish

I know: the list is long. But don't worryyou do not have to know all these verbs by heart! The best way to avoid mistakes is to read as much as you can in English. After a while, it will become easy for you to tell whether a given verb takes continuous form or not. Also, there is a very interesting group of verbs whose meaning can change depending on which form they takecontinuous or non-continuous.

EXERCISES:
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=734

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-paspro/exercises

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-simple-past-continuousexercise-1.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/menu.php http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses/exercises/pastsimple_conti_2.htm