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Grammar Reference 6

The document summarizes the past perfect and past continuous tenses in English. It explains that the past perfect is used to refer to an action completed before another past action, such as "When I arrived at the office, the meeting had started." It also notes that the past perfect continuous is used to describe an action that lasted for some time before another past event. The past continuous is used to describe background events happening at the same time in the past or ongoing scenes, like "He was having a shower when someone knocked at the door." It provides examples of the formation and use of both tenses.

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Alberto Juan Bonansea
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27 views3 pages

Grammar Reference 6

The document summarizes the past perfect and past continuous tenses in English. It explains that the past perfect is used to refer to an action completed before another past action, such as "When I arrived at the office, the meeting had started." It also notes that the past perfect continuous is used to describe an action that lasted for some time before another past event. The past continuous is used to describe background events happening at the same time in the past or ongoing scenes, like "He was having a shower when someone knocked at the door." It provides examples of the formation and use of both tenses.

Uploaded by

Alberto Juan Bonansea
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIT 6

A
past perfect
 Formation of the past perfect simple

had (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) + past participle of the verb

USES:
We use the past perfect to refer to a completed action that happened before another one in the past. :
e.g.: When I arrived at the office, the meeting had started. (= The meeting started and then I arrived).

Positive and negative forms:

I had (n’t) met the manager before.


You
He she it
We you they

Question form:

I
you
Had he she it
we you they met the manager before? E.g.: When we got there, everyone had
left.

Look at time line below. Notice that the past perfect is always in relation
with another action in the past that happened later:

 The past perfect continuous is also used to talk about an action which lasted
for some time before another thing happened in the past.

1
Formation:

had (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) + been + ------- ing form of the verb

E.g.: The meeting had been going on for about an hour when I finally got there.

B
past continuous
Formation:

was(I,he,she,it)
or were (we,you,they)+-------ing form of the verb

Past continuous

· We use the past continuous to talk about:

— the backg:round to events in the past (things that were going on at the time):
E.g.: He was having a shower when someone knocked at the door.
While I was climbing over a wall, I slipped and hurt my knee.

— scenes in the past:


E.g. The street was full of people. They were shouting and singing.

Positive and negative forms:

I, he, she was (n’t)


we, you, they were(n’t) working at the office.

Question form:

Was I, he,she, working at the office?


Were we you they

2
when & while
· when/while + past continuous:

When/While I was having breakfast, someone phoned.


Someone phoned when / while I was having breakfast.
· when + past simple:
I was having breakfast when someone phoned.

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