Simple Past and

Past Continuous
UNIT 9

Simple Past Tense

Actions, events, states that

started and finished in the past

(ago, last , yesterday )

Regular verbs: -ed

Irregular verbs

buy
eat
bring
come
choose
do
drink
drive
feel
forget
find
give
get
have
know
meet
make
leave
pay
run
read
say
sing
sit
see
sleep
speak
swim
think
tell
take
go
wake up
win
wear
write
understand

buy
eat
bring
come
choose
do
drink
drive
feel
forget
find
give
get
have
know
meet
make
leave
pay
run
read
say
sing
sit
see
sleep
speak
swim
think
tell
take
go
wake up
win
wear
write
understand

Tell your classmate

* use simple past

What did you do yesterday?

What did you do Friday night?

Where were you last Saturday

morning?

How did you celebrate your last

birthday?

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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

How many people were there?

Where were the people?
What was hanging from the ceiling?
What was the bank robber holding?
What was the bank robber wearing?
What color was his hair?
What was covering the bank robbers face?
What was the bank manager doing?
What was the bank teller doing?
Who was walking into the bank?
What time was it?

One minute

Past continuous

What were you doing at 9 in the

evening?

He was watching TV.

She was taking a

shower.

We use Past Continuous Tense to

say that somebody was in the
middle of doing something at a
certain moment in the past.

I started doing
PAST

I finished doing

PAST

I was
doing

NOW

Past continuous

I
was
You were
He
was
She was
verb to be +
It
was
(past tense)
We
were
You were
They were

ing

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 nine

oclock?

The past progressive puts

emphasis on the course of an
action in the past.
You were studying when she called.
Were you studying when she called?
You were not studying when she called.

Tips
Use while for two actions in progress at
the same time in the past:
She was talking while he was driving.
Use when for an action that was in
progress that was interrupted by
another event in the past):
I was just leaving when you called.

 You were studying when she called.

Were you studying when she called?
You were not studying when she called.

The children were sleeping while it rained.

(+)
The children werent sleeping while it
rained. (-)
Were the children sleeping while it rained.
(?)

Verb to be +

subject + ING + information ?

Other examples:

I was sleeping when the telephone rang and

woke
me
up.

He was driving too fast when he crashed the

car.

We were watching the news when the

announcer made a special live report.

I was trying to study when you called.

Information Questions:
(WH) + Was / Were + subject +

verb+ing ?

My friend was running when he broke his leg.

Action What?

What was your friend doing when he broke his leg?

He was running.

Edder was fighting when he got a black eye.

person Who?

Who was fighting?

(WH) + Was / Were + subject +

verb+ing ?

The boy was playing volleyball last Monday.

time When?

When was the boy playing

Remember ing spelling rules?

Verb ending in...
(Most verbs)

1 vowel + 1 consonant

1 vowel + 1 consonant +
E

Final ie

How to make the -ING form

Examples

Add -ING

say - saying
go - going
walk walking

Double the consonant, then add

-ING

swim swimming
hit - hitting
get - getting

Remove E, then add ING

come - coming
lose - losing
live living

Change ie to y, then add -ING

die dying
tie -- tying

A little practice
The telephone (ring) when I (take a shower).
The telephone rang when I was taking a shower.
I (eat) dinner when you (come) in.
I was eating dinner when you came in.
It (rain) while they (walk) home.
It was raining while they walked home.
We (see) an accident when we (drive) on the
freeway.
We were driving on the freeway when we saw
an accident .

A little practice
She (chop) onions when she (cut) her finger.
She was chopping onions when she cut her
finger
We (watch) TV when the electricity (go) out.
We were watching TV when the electricity
went out.
My dad (do) the dishes while my mom (send)
an email.
My dad was doing the dishes while my mom
was
sending an email.

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.

LETS PRACTICE!
Look

at the picture.
What were these people doing
yesterday at 10:00 a.m.? Write at
least 6 sentences (include 2 negative
sentences)