Past Continuous or Past Progressive

Explanation

"Yesterday Manuel and Jaime played tennis. They began at 10:00 and finished at 11:00"

What were they doing at 10:30? -They were playing tennis.

"They were playing" means that they were in the middle of playing tennis. They had started playing, but they hadn´t finished.

FORM

I / she / he / it + was + verb with ing

we / you / they + were + verb with ing

Neg = wan´t / weren´t

Quest = Was she cooking? / Were you cooking?

FUNCTION

We use the past continuous or past progressive to say that someone was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but hand´t finished.

Practice 1

8:45 - 9:15 had breakfast	12:45 - 1:30 had lunch
9:15 -10:00 read the newspaper	2:30 - 3:30 washed some clothes
10:00 - 12:00 cleaned her apartment	4:00 - 6:00 watched TV

Write sentences saying what she was doing at these times:

1. At 9:00 she was having breakfast

2. At 9:30 Cloze (1):

3. At 11:00 Cloze (2):

4. At 1:00 Cloze (3):

5. At 3:00 Cloze (4):

6. At 5:00 Cloze (5):

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Practice 2

A group of people were staying in a hotel. One evening the fire alarm went off. Use the words in parentheses to make sentences saying what each person was doing at the time.

Example: (Dan / take / a bath) = Dan was taking a bath.

1. (Ana / write / a letter in her bedroom) Ana Cloze (1):

2. (Jorge / get / ready to go out) Jorge Cloze (2):

3. (Eli y Daniel / have / dinner) Eli and Daniel Cloze (3):

4. (Alex / make / a phone call) Alex Cloze (4):

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