Grammar ~20 min of the core left

Say what was happening at that moment

After this lesson you can

I can say what was happening at a moment in the past and what interrupted it.

Start the lesson Core 18–20 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

4 min

was / were + a verb with -ing — an action that was IN PROGRESS at a particular moment in the past.

At seven o'clock I was working.	at seven I was in the middle of my work
They were walking in the park.	they were in the middle of a walk
Were you sleeping?	a question: were you asleep at that moment?
I wasn't listening.	a negative: I was not listening at that moment

Inside it, everything is familiar: was/were from A1 #27 and the -ing form from A1 #25.

The two past tenses work as a pair, and this is the main point of the lesson:

long action — background (Past Continuous)	short action — event (Past Simple)
I was walking in the park	when it started to rain.
She was cooking dinner	when I came home.

when goes before the short action: when it started;
while goes before the long one: while I was walking (when also works here).

Both sentences can be turned round; you put a comma if the when part comes first: When I came home, she was cooking dinner.

Common learner errors

written for your language

One tense instead of two

✗ When I came home, she cooked dinner — this means she started cooking AFTER you came home. To say she was in the middle of cooking when you came, you need the continuous: she was cooking. German (sie kochte), Dutch and Swedish have one simple past for both meanings; in English they are two different tenses.

The verb straight after the comma

✗ When I came home, rang the phone.

✓ When I came home, the phone rang.

In German (Als ich nach Hause kam, klingelte das Telefon), Dutch and Swedish the verb comes right after a when part. In English the subject still comes first, then the verb.

while with a short action

✗ While I came home

✓ When I came home

while means "during the time that", so it needs an action that lasts.

The continuous where you need the simple past

✗ I was visiting Italy last summer

✓ I visited Italy last summer

Learners of every language use a new form everywhere at first, as with the Present Continuous in A1 #25. The whole trip is an event, not a background.

Pronunciation

3 min

was and were before -ing stay weak: /wəz/ and /wə/. The stress falls on the main verb: I was working.

In the negative, on the contrary, they are stressed: I wasn't working. To the ear, the difference between I was working and I wasn't working is in the stress and the length, not only in n't.

Text

3 min

Yesterday evening I was reading a book when the phone rang. It was my sister. She was waiting for a taxi and it was raining. While she was talking, I was cooking dinner. At nine o'clock we were eating and watching an old film.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Gap fill.

I (read) a book when the phone (ring)
While she (talk), I (cook) dinner
At seven o'clock we (eat) dinner

Show the answers

was reading / rang; was talking / was cooking; were eating.

2. Gap fill.

I was walking in the park, it started to rain
She was cooking I came home

Show the answers

While / When; when.

3. Error correction.

When I came home, she cooked dinner. (she was already cooking)
While I came home, the phone rang.
I reading a book when the phone rang.

Show the answers

When I came home, she was cooking dinner. / She was cooking dinner when I came home; When I came home, the phone rang. / While I was coming home, the phone rang; I was reading a book when the phone rang.

4. Matching.

long action (background)
short action (event)

Show the answers

long action (background) — Past Continuous; short action (event) — Past Simple.

Summary

Covered

the Past Continuous in all its forms
the pair "background and event"
when against while

Next — lesson 3: what has already been done.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 39

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

12 words

ring /rɪŋ/ to make a sound (a phone, a bell); to phone
rang /ræŋ/ past of ring (the phone rang)
wait for /ˈweɪt fɔː/ to stay until someone or something comes
while /waɪl/ during the time that
happen /ˈhæpən/ to take place (What happened?)
suddenly /ˈsʌdnli/ quickly and when you do not expect it
noise /nɔɪz/ a loud or unpleasant sound
fall /fɔːl/ to go down to the ground
fell /fel/ past of fall
break /breɪk/ to make something go into pieces or stop working
broke /brəʊk/ past of break
lose /luːz/ to stop having something; not to know where it is

Writing

Four sentences about yesterday evening: what was going on in the background and what interrupted it.

Example

Yesterday evening I was reading a book when the phone rang. It was my sister. While she was talking, I was cooking dinner. At nine we were watching a film.

Checklist

does the background have was/were + -ing?
Does the event have the simple past?
Is when before the short action and while before the long one?

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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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