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THE FLATMATES

Language point: Past continuous & past simple interrupted activities

BBC Learning English The Flatmates


The Flatmates Past continuous and past simple interrupted activities You can see this language point online at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/languagepoint.shtml

Past continuous and past simple interrupted activities English speakers often use the past simple and past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else. In this episode of The Flatmates, Alice says: 'when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone' This means that Paul started talking on the phone before Alice arrived at the restaurant, and he was still talking when she entered the restaurant. The order of the clauses is not important here. It is possible to change the clause order without changing the meaning of the sentence. 'he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant'

'When', 'while' and 'as' 'when', 'while' and 'as' are important time markers. They can be used with the past simple or the past continuous part of the sentence. 'when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone' 'he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant ' 'As I was walking down the street, I met my old teacher.' 'I met my old teacher as I was walking down the street.' 'While the teacher was talking, two of the students fell asleep.' 'Two of the students fell asleep while the teacher was talking.'

Past simple The past simple is usually used when things happen one after another. 'She got up, had a shower, got dressed, made breakfast and went to work.'

The Flatmates

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BBC Learning English The Flatmates


Stative verbs Some verbs are not normally used in the continuous tense. These are often verbs associated with thoughts and feelings such as: believe, know, understand, want, think, feel, like, love, smell, taste, hear. In this example, 'think' means 'to have an opinion': I am thinking that this book is very expensive wrong I think that this book is very expensive - right However, if the verb describes an action, the continuous tense can be used. In this example, 'think' refers to an activity: My mum called just when I was thinking about her. For more information about stative verbs (also known as state verbs) see The Flatmates episode 4:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode04/languagepoint.shtml

Vocabulary dreadful awful, terrible to eavesdrop to listen to another person's conversation without them knowing you are listening Would you like to try an online quiz about this language point? Go to: http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/quiz.shtml Or you can download the quiz from: http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/quiz.pdf More on this language point: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv69.shtml

The Flatmates

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