Exercise 2:

Match the sentences with the uses of the Past Continuous Tense

1. When I got up this morning the sun was shining.

2. The phone rang when I was having a bath.

3. What were you doing yesterday at 7 p.m.?

4. I was living abroad in 1993, so I missed the election.

5. When she came I was cleaning the windows.

6. I was reading while he was washing up.

7. At 8 p.m. he was watching TV.

8. During my training I was earning a lot less than my wife.

9. I was wondering if you could give me hand with this.

10. I was talking to the Prime Minister the other day and he was telling me that ....

11. The bride was wearing a white gown. The bridegroom was trembling and looking pale. Suddenly a tall man entered ......

12. He was always losing things when he worked here.

13. Sara was working on her essay last night.

14. One morning the sisters were sketching by the side of Willey Water, at the remote end of the lake. Ursula was watching the butterflies, of which there were dozens near the water...

15. It was raining all the afternoon.

16. It was getting darker.

17. Are you going to New York? I thought you were going to Boston.

18. She was busy because she was leaving the next morning.

THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE IS USED FOR:

a. Actions in progress in the past

b. Actions in progress which began before something else happened

c. Actions in progress in the past which were interrupted by another action

d. Parallel actions in the past

e. Temporary actions in the past

f. Incomplete actions in the past

g. Frequently repeated actions in the past causing the speaker's annoyance:

h. To make inquiries, requests or suggestions more tentative and polite

i. Without a time expression to indicate gradual change in the past:

j. With a point in time for an action which began before that time and probably continued after it

k. In narrative for descriptions

l. As an alternative to the Simple Past (especially with verbs of communication) to indicate a more casual, less deliberate action

m. Past arrangements that may or may not have taken place

n. Unfulfilled arrangements (with hope, plan, expect )

Practical grammar Year 1

Agnieszka Piasecka

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