The Present Simple (Indefinite) Tense, страница 3

Note that when an adverbial denoting a period of time (for five years, for a fen- minutes, etc) is used with the Past Simple emphasis is placed on the reference of the fact to the past, not on the duration of the activity.

They lived in Brest for five years before the war.

2.  A succession of single past actions.

/ entered the office, looked around and came up to

the secretary.

3. Habitual past actions or states.

I often went cycling last summer.

When it is desired to emphasize a contrast between the past and the present the construction used to + Infinitive* is preferable.

He used to smoke forty cigarettes a day till he finally gave up smoking.

Do you play golf? - No, but I used to when I lived in the country.

She used to be such a happy lively girl (but no longer now).

4. Reported present time actions after the reporting verbs like say, tell, ask, wonder, etc in the Past Simple (according to the rules of Sequence of Tenses).

Direct Speech	Indirect (Reported) Speech
1. Jane said to me: «I am never late for classes». 2. Ann asked me: « When do you usually have breakfast ?»	1.  Jane laid me (that) she was never late for classes. 2.  Ann wondered when 1 usually had breakfast.

B. The Past Continuous (Progressive) Tense

FORMATION

The Past Continuous tense is formed with the help of the auxiliary was/were and the Present Participle of the main verb.

Affirmative			Negative			Interrogative
I	was	working	I	was not	working	was	I	working?
you	were		you	were not		were	you
he she it	was		he she it	was not		was	he she it we you they
we you they	were		we you they	were not		were

Contractions:

wasn't = was not weren't = were not

USAGE

The Past Continuous (Progressive) tense denotes:

1. An action in progress at a definite moment* or at a definite period of time in the past indicated normally by adverbial modifiers such as at 5 p.m., at that time yesterday, from 2 to 3, between three and four, all the morning, the whole day, etc.

At one o'clock she was having lunch.

What were you doing yesterday at seven p.m.?

It was raining the whole morning.

The moment in the past can also be expressed by the context or by an adverbial clause of time.

I looked out of the window. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.

When I came in he was lying in bed.

There can be situations with two parallel past actions in progress, which are both expressed by the Past Continuous or by the Past Simple tenses, or there may be a combination of the Past Continuous and the Past Simple. The two simulta­neous actions in progress are normally linked by 'while'.

Jane was cooking while I was laying the table. While we were packing (packed) the suitcases, Bill was talking (talked) to the travel agent.

Note that when the two actions are not simultaneous, i.e.

when one action happened after the other, the Past Simple is used for both the verbs.

When Brenda arrived I was telephoning Jim. (She arrived during my telephone call.) When Brenda arrived I telephoned Jim. (I telepho­ned after her arrival.)

2.  A past action of unusual frequency to convey a feeling of annoyance or irritation with adverbials of frequency like always, constantly (compare with a similar use of the Present Continuous).

When he studied at school he was always making trouble.