Advice for hard times: past simple and past continuous
Listening first. A grown-up reads the text below once or twice. Listen for events, feelings and tone: how does the speaker feel at the start and at the end? The past simple tells about finished actions: He fell. She bought a book. Many verbs are irregular: fall, fell; break, broke; buy, bought; see, saw; eat, ate; go, went. The past continuous is was or were + verb + -ing. It tells about an action in progress at a moment in the past: I was reading at nine last night. We often use both together. The long action is in the past continuous and the short action that interrupts it is in the past simple: While I was walking, I saw a cat. We were eating when the phone rang. Use while with the long action and when with the short action. Stative verbs such as know and like are not used in the past continuous.
| Past simple | Past continuous | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | verb + -ed or irregular | was / were + verb + -ing |
| Meaning | a finished action | an action in progress |
| Together | short action: the phone rang | long action: we were eating |
| Example | He fell. | He was riding when he fell. |
When Jana started swimming lessons, she was nervous. While the other children were jumping into the pool, she was standing at the edge with cold hands. Her coach, Mr Yasser, sat next to her and said, “You don’t have to jump. Put your feet in the water first.” Jana smiled a little. A few minutes later she was kicking in the shallow end. After three lessons she swam across the pool. At the end she said, “I was scared, but now I am proud!”
Past story chain. With a grown-up make a story with five sentences. Each person adds one sentence with while or when. For example: While I was walking home, it started to rain. When it started to rain, I was holding a book. Write the final story.