LEVEL 5 GRAMMAR, APRIL 4TH, 2017

We looked this week at the Past Continuous

We form this tense with

was
were           + verb-ing

we use it to describe an activity in progress at a point in the past.






Compare
When I arrived, they were eating dinner. - the action was in progress when I arrived

When I arrived, they ate their dinner - I arrived, and then they started dinner.

In the question we have to invert the words like this....

What were you doing at 3pm yesterday?

More practice here and here.



We then looked at the past perfect. This is formed like this....

had + past participle (third form of the verb)




We usually use it with the past simple to talk about an action that happened before the past simple verb.....

Last night my friend invited me to dinner. Unfortunately, I had already eaten. 

The past perfect - had eaten - tells us what happened first.

compare....
When I got home, the children went to bed. - I arrived home first, then the children went to bed.

When I got home, the children had gone to bed. - The children went to bed before I arrived home. 

More practice here. 



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