| 1. Past Continuous | 2. While, Who & When | 3. Using Tenses |
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1. PAST CONTINUOUS |
| Steve was travelling too fast. Was travelling is a verb tense called past continuous. It describes a continuous action in the past. |
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| POLICEMAN I’m afraid you were travelling at seventy kilometres per hour in a sixty kilometre zone. |
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| Travelling is a continuous action, one that goes on for a time. And it is a past action, because Steve is not travelling now. He has stopped. Listen for another continuous action that has stopped. |
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| POLICEMAN Also, I see you have a passenger in the back seat who was not wearing a seat belt. |
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| We form the past continuous with was or were and the ing form of the verb. They were driving too fast. I was working too hard. It was raining. |
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| STEVE We were driving there when you pulled us over. |
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| We form the negative of the past continuous by saying not between was or were and the ing verb. They were not driving too fast. I was not working too hard. It was not raining. |
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| POLICEMAN Also, I see you have a passenger in the back seat who was not wearing a seat belt. |
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2. WHILE, WHO & WHEN |
| While, who and when are used to make complex sentences. While means 'during the time’. |
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| It’s used to link two ideas together. You are on a bus. You must have a ticket. You must have a ticket while you are on a bus. |
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| You are in a restaurant. You mustn’t smoke. You mustn’t smoke while you are in a restaurant. |
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| When connects two actions which happened at the same time. We were driving there. You pulled us over. We were driving there when you pulled us over. |
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| STEVE We were driving there when you pulled us over. |
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| We were speeding. You stopped us. We were speeding when you stopped us. |
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| POLICEMAN Do you know that you must wear a seat belt when you’re travelling in a vehicle, ma’am? |
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| We also link ideas with who. My friend has been looking for her brother. She hasn’t seen him for two years. My friend has been looking for her brother who she hasn’t seen for two years. |
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| SARAH You see officer, my friend here has been looking for her brother who she hasn’t seen for two years |
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3. USING TENSES |
| Listen to this long sentence from Sarah. | |
| SARAH I’m sorry. I forgot. You see officer, my friend here has been looking for her brother who she hasn’t seen for two years, and we’ve just discovered the address. |
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| The present perfect continuous tense ‘My friend here has been looking for her brother’ tells us that Anne was looking in the past, and is still looking now. |
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| SARAH You see officer, my friend here has been looking for her brother... |
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| ‘She hasn’t seen him’ shows that in all that time, Anne did not see her brother, and she still hasn’t seen him now. |
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| SARAH You see officer, my friend here has been looking for her brother who she hasn’t seen for two years. |
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more information: Present Perfect Continuous Tense - Episode 28 |
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’We’ve just discovered his address.’ is the present perfect tense. They discovered his address just a little while ago at the market. |
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| SARAH You see officer, my friend here has been looking for her brother who she hasn’t seen for two years, and we’ve just discovered the address. |
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more information: Present
Perfect - Episode 10 |
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