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THE FLATMATESLanguage point:Past continuous & pastsimple – interrupted activities

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The Flatmates – Past continuous and past simple – interrupted activities

You can see this language point online at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/languagepoint.shtml 

Past continuous and past simple – interrupted activities

English speakers often use the past simple and past continuous together to say thatsomething happened in the middle of something else. In this episode of The Flatmates,Alice says:

'…when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone…'

This means that Paul started talking on the phone before Alice arrived at the restaurant,and he was still talking when she entered the restaurant.

The order of the clauses is not important here. It is possible to change the clause orderwithout changing the meaning of the sentence.

'…he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant…'

'When', 'while' and 'as'

'when', 'while' and 'as' are important time markers. They can be used with the pastsimple or the past continuous part of the sentence.

'…when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone…''…he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant… '

'As I w as walking down the street, I met my old teacher.'

'I met my old teacher as  I w as walking down the street.'

'While the teacher was talking, two of the students fell asleep.''Two of the students fell asleep while the teacher was talking.'

Past simple 

The past simple is usually used when things happen one after another.

'She got up, had a shower, got dressed, made breakfast and went to work.' 

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Stative verbs 

Some verbs are not normally used in the continuous tense. These are often verbsassociated with thoughts and feelings such as: believe, know , understand, want,think, feel, like, love, smell, taste, hear .

In this example, 'think' means 'to have an opinion':I am thinking that this book is very expensive – wrongI think that this book is very expensive - right

However, if the verb describes an action, the continuous tense can be used. In thisexample, 'think' refers to an activity:My mum called just when I w as thinking about her.

For more information about stative verbs (also known as state verbs) see The Flatmatesepisode 4:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode04/languagepoint.shtml 

Vocabulary

dreadfulawful, terrible

to eavesdropto listen to another person's conversation without them knowing you are listening

Would you like to try an online quiz about this language point? Go to:

http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/quiz.shtml 

Or you can download the quiz from:http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode70/quiz.pdf  

More on this language point:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv69.shtml