Past Tense and Past

Continuous Verbs
 Simple Past Tense
Actions, events, states that started and
finished in the past (ago, last ,
yesterday )
Regular verbs: -ed
Irregular verbs: change spelling,
memorize
 Tell your partner use past
tense verbs!
What did you do yesterday?
What did you do last Saturday night?
Where were you last Sunday morning?
What did you do to celebrate your last birthday?
When did you move to the U.S.?
When did you learn to drive?
Why did you start taking classes at MiraCosta
College?
How did you learn to speak English so well?
Past Continuous: Three Uses
Use 1: Past actions that were in progress at a
particular time in the past; actions that were not
yet finished at a past time

Pablos Schedule
8 9: had breakfast
9 10: finished his
homework
10 11: read the
newspaper
11 12: ate lunch
12 2: watched soccer
match on TV
2 5: took a nap
Tell a classmate use past
continuous verbs: I was _______ing
Where were you last Thursday at 8 p.m.? What
were you doing?
What were you doing Friday at 5 p.m.? Where
were you? Who were you with?
What were you doing Sunday morning at 7
a.m.?
What were you doing last night at this time?
What were you doing last week at this time?
What were you doing last year at this time?
 Past Continuous, continued
Use 2: Two (or more) actions that were in
progress in the past at the same time

Use while
Examples:
Sorry, I wasnt listening to you while you were
talking.
While I was reading, he was writing.
 Past Continuous, continued
Use 3: Describe and set the scene; tell
what was happening or in progress when
something else happened or interrupted a
past in-progress action
Examples:
Car accident
Broken bone
A Crime
 Form: Using past and past
continuous together
Use past continuous
to say what was in
progress
I was crossing the
street
Use simple past for
the interrupting
action
when the driver ran the
red light.
 Other examples:

I was sleeping when the telephone rang

and woke me up.

He was driving too fast when he crashed

the car.
 More Examples:
We were watching the news when the
announcer made a special live report.

I was trying to study when you called.

Student examples:
Practice:
Do you have a good memory?
Are you a good witness?

Directions: Look at the following picture

for one minute. Try to remember as many
details as you can, but dont write
anything.
 Only one minute
Ready, go .
One minute
 What do you remember?
1. How many people were there?
2. Where were the people?
3. What was hanging from the ceiling?
4. What was the bank robber holding?
5. What was the bank robber wearing?
6. What color was his hair?
7. What was covering the bank robbers face?
8. Was the bank robber right-handed or left-handed?
9. What was the bank manager doing?
10. What was the bank teller doing?
11. Who was walking into the bank?
12. What time was it?
13. What was under the bank managers desk?
 Form of Past Continuous
Subject + was / were + verb+ing

Negation:
Subject + was / were + not + verb+ing

Yes/ No Question:
Was / Were + subject + + verb+ing ?

Information Question:
(WH) + Was / Were + subject + + verb+ing ?
Remember ing spelling rules?
Verb ending in... How to make the -ING form Examples

say - saying
(Most verbs) Add -ING go - going
walk - walking

swim - swimming
1 vowel + 1 consonant Double the consonant, then add -ING hit - hitting
get - getting

come - coming
lose - losing
1 vowel + 1 consonant + E Remove E, then add ING live living

die dying
Final ie Change ie to y, then add -ING tie -- tying
 A little practice
1. I (make) ____________________ a deposit
at my bank when a man in a mask (pull)
____________________ out a gun and started
to rob the bank.
2. I (drive) ____________________ to work
when I (see) ____________________ my
neighbors door open and someone in the
house.
3. They (walk) on the sidewalk when a car (hit)
____________________ the person closest to
the road.
 A little practice
4. She (talk) ____________________ to a friend
at the mall when a man (come)
____________________ up behind her and
(grab) ____________________ her purse.
5. I (watch) ____________________ TV when I
(hear) shouting and gunshots next door.
6. I (work) ____________________ in the
garden and my son (find)
____________________ some matches and
(start) ____________________ a fire in the
living room.
 Review
Simple past = action or state finished in
the past (yesterday, last, ago, etc.)
Past continuous = was/were + verb+ing,
an action that was in progress/not finished
when another action happened
(interrupted)
 Writing: Which is correct?
1. I (sleep) well last night.
2. I (sleep) when the first started.
3. When I got up this morning, it (rain).
4. It (rain) hard last night.
5. Susie fell when she (play) in the park.
6. We (have) dinner when you called.
7. I (write) an email when you called me.
8. He (paint) the walls yesterday.
9. She (drive) to Los Angeles in her new car.
 Final Tips
Use while for two actions in progress at the
same time in the past:
She was talking while he was driving.
Use when when telling about sequence of
events (one action that was in progress that
was interrupted by another event in the past):
I was just leaving when you called.
(first action in progress) (interrupting
event)
 Punctuation
with When and While
When and while at the front of a sentence, use
a comma:
When you called, I was watching TV.
While he was washing the clothes, I was doing the
dishes.
When and while in the middle of a sentence, no
comma
I was watching TV when you called.
I was doing the dishes while he was washing the
clothes.