|
Hello
again! Peter and Japan or Jack and England,
Sharon the choice is yours, what would you choose?
Now there was something that Peter said in that
episode which is interesting and that I'd like
to teach you now.
He said 'While l was singing he interrupted
me and shouted: the part is yours'.
'While l was singing he interrupted me', now
that is an example of the past continuous tense
which is what l like to look at with you now.
And l want to give you some examples of that
if you listen, using my friend the alchemist.
Now this is the alchemist, and he travels through
many countries looking for magical potions to
help people, and he was travelling in Tibet
for many, many days and was extremely tired,
so he decided to lie down and rest.
So Mr Alchemist rested in the mountains of Tibet
and while he was resting a magical butterfly
from Tibet rested near his head to protect him,
and these butterflies in Tibet protect good
people from the evil around and there are evil
things in the mountains of Tibet.
So, while he was resting, and regaining his
energy, suddenly a ferocious lion appeared and
saw the alchemist and the butterfly resting
and thought: 'A great two-course dinner! A starter
and a main course!'.
As he was preparing to attack, the butterfly
saw him, but didn't move, as the lion was getting
closer, suddenly the butterfly turned and cast
a spell on the lion and the lion bit off his
tongue and died!
That was the end of the lion, and the alchemist
survived.
Let's look at the language that l used there,
the past continuous.
Now the past continuous, as l said before, is
a tense that we use when an action is continuing
and is sometimes interrupted by another action,
look at the example: 'He was sleeping when the
lion attacked', 'She was working when it happened'
now you notice it's l was, you were, he she
it was, we were, you were, they were plus the
infinitive form and lNG.
So 'She was working when it happened', 'We were
watching TV when he phoned', 'They were relaxing
when the lights went off.
Now, the negative form is easy because you put
the auxiliary into the negative 'l wasn't concentrating
when l dropped it', 'You weren't listening when
the teacher explained it', 'you weren't', check
the pronunciation there, 'lt wasn't working
when l switched it on'.
The question form: you take the auxiliary and
the subject form 'What were you doing when he
phoned?', 'What were you doing...', 'Where were
you going when the news arrived?', and 'Who
were they talking to when l saw them?', 'Who
were they talking to when l saw them?', alright?
So, past continuous tense in order to describe
actions which are continuing and can sometimes
being interrupted or, for example 'As l was
telling the story you were listening to me and
learning the past continuous'.
Great! So that's the past continuous, come back
to the next lesson for some more new language,
bye!
|