past progressive | English To Connect

➣ The past continuous describes an action that was happening when another action interrupts

Last month a student from China joined our class. She came in, introduced herself, and began to talk about her country. She showed us where she was from on a map. While she was talking about her home town, the school bell suddenly rang.

I was writing	I was not writing	Was I writing?
You were skiing	You were not skiing	Were you skiing?
He was reading	He wasn’t reading	Was he reading?
We were trying	We weren’t trying	Were we trying?
They were dying	They weren’t dying	Were they dying?

➣ Actions that were in progress at a particular time in the past and descriptions of habits

At midnight, we were still driving .
Yesterday at this time, I was sitting at my desk at work.
He was constantly talking. He annoyed everyone.
I didn’t like them because they were always complaining.

➣ Parallel actions to describe the atmosphere at a particular time in the past

When I walked into the office, several people were busily typing, some were talking on the phones, the boss was yelling directions, and customers were waiting to be helped. One customer was shouting at a secretary and waving his hands. Others were complaining to each other about the bad service.

Friday the 13th. Everything went wrong for Larry. Look at his misfortunes

HERE ARE THE TEXTS FOR THE PICTURES ABOVE, BUT THEY ARE IN THE WRONG ORDER

answers: e , b , c , f , a , d

Here there are some questions about the pictures. Try to answer them without looking at the texts

More and more things went wrong for Larry. Join the sentences according to the pictures

Write a short narration for each event. For example:

On Sunday Larry was swimming in the sea when his shorts came off in the water. He felt very embarrased because there were a lot of people on the beach. He had to wait inside the water until everyone left.

reference: New Generation Colin Granger Heinemann

reference: English for Life Pre-Intermediate Oxford

➣Exercise ➣Exercise ➣Exercise

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The English Tenses

The English Tenses. Perfect and Continuous.

Table of Tenses All English Tenses

Present Simple	Present Continuous	Past Simple	Past Continuous
She eats	You are eating	She ate	You were eating
She does not eat	You are not eating	She did not eat	You were not eating
Does she eat?	Are you eating?	Did she eat?	Were you eating?

Future Simple	Conditional Simple	Present Perfect	Past Perfect
I will eat	I would eat	He has eaten	He had eaten
I will not eat	I would not eat	He has not eaten	He had not eaten
Will I eat?	Would I eat?	Has he eaten?	Had he eaten?

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Present Perfect Continuous	I have been eating

Past Perfect Continuous	I had been eating

Future Continuous	I will be eating

Future Perfect	I will have eaten

Future Perfect Continuous	I will have been eating

Conditional Continuous	I would be eating

Conditional Perfect	I would have eaten

Conditional Perfect Continuous	I would have been eating



PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS	He has been eating He has not been eating Has he been eating?	putting emphasis on the duration* (not the result)* action that recently stopped or is still going on/ finished action that influences the present ————————

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS	He had been eating He had not been eating Had he been eating?	action taking place before a certain time in the past interchangeable with past perfect (emphasis on the duration) ————————-

FUTURE GOING TO	He is going to eat He is not going to eat Is he going to eat?	planned decision or conclusion with regard to the future

FUTURE CONTINUOUS	He will be eating He will not be eating Will he be eating?	action that is going on at a certain time in the future action that is sure to happen in the near future –

FUTURE PERFECT	He will have eaten He will not have eaten Will he have eaten? – –	action that will be finished at a certain time in the future

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS	He will have been eating He will not have been eating Will he have been eating? – –	action taking place before a certain time in the future putting emphasis on the course of an action

CONDITIONAL PERFECT	He would have eaten He would not have eaten Would he have eaten? – –	action that might have taken place in the past third conditional: If I had seen that, I would have helped

CONDITIONAL PERFECT CONTINUOUS	He would have been eating He would not have been eating Would he have been eating?	third conditional unfulfilled result of the action in the if-clause

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