lekce 3

Past continuous - I was doing

- we use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something.
- in the past continuous, a specific time only interrupts the action while in the simple past, a specific time is used to show when an action began or finished.
- there are verbs that are commonly not used in the past continous (e.g. want, know, believe)

For example:

Yesterday at 12 AM, I ate lunch. (I started eating at 12 AM) x Yesterday at 12 AM, I was eating lunch. (I started earlier)
This time last year I was living in Slovakia.
I was walking home when I met Sue.
The telephone rang when I was doing my homework.
I broke my arm while I was playing tennis.
What were you doing the whole weekend.
The boy stole my wallet when I was trying to help his mother with the wagon.

I / he / she / it     was    playing
we / you / they    were    doing
Present perfect - I have done

- the present perfect is used when the action in the past has a result now.
- in the present perfect we cannot use specific time expressions like: yesterday, last week, one day, at that moment, when I was a child etc. We can only use the unspecific time expressions such as: just, already, yet, ever, never, before etc.

For example:

The road is closed.
There has been an accident.
I´ve bought a new house.
He has lost 10 pounds so far.
I haven´t finished the homework yet.
Have you just arrived?
Have you ever been to Japan, John?
Have ever driven a car before?

¨
I / we / they / you   have    finished
he / she / it             has    done
The past participle often ends in -ed.

Irregular verbs:

be    been
become    become
buy    bought
come    come
eat    eaten
do    done
fall    fallen
feel    felt
go    gone
know    known
leave    left
meet    met
put    put
send    sent
sit    sat
speak    spoken
steal    stole
strike    struck
think    thought
wear    worn
write    written