ملخص الدرس / الثالثة متوسط/اللغة الإنجليزية/File 3/The past continuous tense

♦ To talk about single, longer actions/ activities or events happening at a particular time in the past, I use the past continuous tense:

                  "was/ were + (V + ing)".

                    eg: We were working on the miniaturisation of cameras. (= We spent a long period of time working on the mimiaturisation of cameras.)

⇒ Iuse "was" (the past simple form of "be") whith the pronouns: I,he, she, it. 

⇒ Iuse "were" (the past simple form of "be") whith the pronouns: we,you,they. 

⇒ Past Continuous Tense (forms)

 ♦ Interrogative form: "was/ were + S +V-ing + (rest of sentence)?"

               eg: Were you sleeping all morning? I phoned you three times!

♦ Negative form: "wasn't/ weren't" (in short answers) "wasn't/ weren't" + V-ing (in long answers).

               eg: NO, I wasn't. I wasn't sleeping all morning.

♦ Affirmative form: "was/ were" (in short answers) "was/ were" + V-ing (in long answers).

               eg: Yes, I was. I was sleeping all morning.

⇒ Contracted/ Short Forms of "be" inthe Past

¤ wasn't is the short form for "was not".

¤ weren't is the short form for "were not".

The past continuous and simultaneous actions

⇒ To talk about two longer actions/ activities or events happening at the same time (simultaneous) in the past, Ican use the past continuous tense and the connector/ cojuction "while" to combine them.

   eg: I was working in the application of laser thechnology to microelectronics while I was living in Japan. 

         We were doing other things while we were working on the miniaturisation of mobile phones.