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Simple Past and Past Continuous

The document provides information about the simple past and past continuous tenses in English. It explains that the simple past is used to talk about finished events in the past, while the past continuous is used to talk about past events that were ongoing at a specific time. When using these tenses together, the simple past refers to a shorter action that occurred within a longer action denoted by the past continuous. Time signals like "when" and "while" are used to connect clauses using these tenses.

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Henry Saputro
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232 views

Simple Past and Past Continuous

The document provides information about the simple past and past continuous tenses in English. It explains that the simple past is used to talk about finished events in the past, while the past continuous is used to talk about past events that were ongoing at a specific time. When using these tenses together, the simple past refers to a shorter action that occurred within a longer action denoted by the past continuous. Time signals like "when" and "while" are used to connect clauses using these tenses.

Uploaded by

Henry Saputro
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 PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SIMPLE PAST

AND
PAS T C O NT INU O US
Oc t ob e r
th
2 7 , 20 21
LANG
SMPK COR JESU MA
SIMPLE PAST
PAST CONTINUOUS

The simple past and the past continuous are


two tenses commonly used to make general
statements about the past. Although they are
both past tenses their uses are quite
different.
SIMPLE PAST TENSE FORMULA
(+) Affirmative Subject + Verb 2 + Object / Complement

(-) Negative Subject + didn’t + Verb 1+ Object / Complement

(?) Interrogative Did + Subject + Verb 1 + Object/ Complement?


WHEN DO WE USE SIMPLE PAST?

Simple Past tense is used to talk about finished events in the past.

Examples:
I went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday.
I flew to Sydney last month.
I visited my sister during my trip to Australia.
pAST CONTINUOUS FORMULA
(+) Affirmative Subject + To Be (Was/Were) + Ving + Object / Complement

(-) Negative Subject + To Be (Was/Were) + not + Ving + Object /


Complement

(?) Interrogative To Be ( Was/Were) + Subject + Ving + Object/


Complement?

Was: I / HE / SHE / IT
Were: YOU / WE / THEY
WHEN DO WE USE PAST CONTINUOUS?

The past continuous tense is mainly used to talk about past events
that were in progress at a particular point of time in the past.

Examples:
I was reading at 6 yesterday evening.
She was getting ready for school at 9.30 yesterday morning.
Time Signals
SIMPLE PAST AND PAST CONTINOUS
IN A SENTENCE

1. When simple past tense and past continuous tense are used together in a sentence,
note that we use the simple past to denote the action that happened in the middle of the
longer action denoted by the past continuous tense..
2. To make it short, check the use of these tenses on the table below.

SIMPLE PAST PAST CONTINUOUS

• Shorter action with shorter • Longer action with longer


duration duration
• Activity happened second • Activity happened first
SIMPLE PAST AND PAST CONTINOUS
IN A SENTENCE
SIMPLE PAST PAST CONTINUOUS

• Shorter action with shorter • Longer action with longer


duration duration
• Activity happened second • Activity happened first

Examples:
1. She was having a bath when the telephone rang. (Here we use the past continuous
tense to refer to the longer background action and the simple past tense to refer to the
shorter action that happened in the middle.)
2. They were playing cards when someone knocked at the door.
3. She was having lunch when visitors arrived.
THE USE OF “WHEN” AND “WHILE”
"when" with past continuous and past simple

We use "when" with the past continuous and past simple:


 to describe an action that was in progress (using past continuous) when another action happened (using past
simple):

 "I was studying history at university when I learnt to play the saxophone."

 to describe a continuous action that was already in progress (using past continuous) and was interrupted by a
shorter action (using past simple):

 "I was going downstairs when I heard the doorbell."


or
"When I heard the doorbell, I was going downstairs."
The action of going downstairs was already in progress and was interrupted when the doorbell rang.

P.S. When can be followed by either simple past or past continuous tense
When dapat diikutio oleh simple past dan past continuous tense
THE USE OF “WHEN” AND “WHILE”
• We use "while" with the past continuous to describe a continuous action that was in
progress at the same time as another action, using either the past simple or past
continuous:

• "She read the newspaper while I was doing the gardening."


or "While I was doing the gardening, she read the newspaper."

• "She was reading the newspaper while I was doing the gardening."


or "While I was doing the gardening, she was reading the newspaper.“

P.S. While always followed by past continuous tense


While selalu diikuti oleh past continuous tense
THANK YOU!

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