Duo les: Past Simple vs Past Continuous

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• mavo
• Leerjaar 4

Start of the lesson

Start reading: Billy Elliot

Grab your book, have a seat and start to read.

Lokaal 8

Lokaal 9

Present Perfect

Past Simple

VS

Past Continuous

Past Simple

Past Continuous

shows us that an action was in the past

shows us that the action was already in progress at a certain time in the past.

Signaalwoorden:  when, yesterday, last week, last year, three days ago, a long time ago, in 1989

Signaalwoorden: when, while, at the same time.

Voorbeeldzinnen:

My parents called me yesterday.

I woke up early this morning.

Sam played basketball when he was at university.

Voorbeeldzinnen:

What were you doing at 8 p.m. last night? I was studying.

We were cleaning the house all morning.

Past Simple VS Past Continuous

When we use these two tenses together, it shows us that the past simple action happened in the middle of the past continuous action, while it was in progress.

While I was studying, I suddenly felt sleepy.

I broke my leg when I was skiing.

As I was going to work, I saw an old friend.

She ..... (to feel) pretty sick yesterday.

1. was feeling
2. felt

Didn't you see?! That man ..... (to wear) a dress!

1. was wearing
2. wore

I ..... (to stop) at the end of the road.

1. was stopping
2. stopped

Chances are that he ..... (to see) me last week.

1. was seeing
2. saw

While they ..... (to calculate) the total costs to buy the house, the broker suddenly got ill.

1. were calculating
2. calculated

I ...... (to breath) very strongly, when I ran up that hill.

1. was breathing
2. breathed

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