Simple and Continuous Tenses

'What are you doing?' or 'What do you usually do?'

present simple and present continuous

Open Ended

What are you doing right now?

Open Ended

What do you usually do on the weekend?

Present simple: affirmative (positive)

• I / you / we / they + verb

  I play football. My friends watch TV.

• she / he / it verb+(e)s

  My brother plays football. My sister watches TV.
  

Present simple: negative sentences

• I / you / we /they don't + verb ...

  You don't do English on Wednesdays.

• she / he / it doesn't + verb ...

  My cat doesn't eat cake.

Present simple: questions (?)

• Do I/you/we/they verb ...?

  Do we do English on Wednesdays?

• Does she/he/it verb ...?

  Does your friend like chocolate cake?

Past Simple and Past Continuous

What are the differences ?

Past simple

 > It is used to talk about finished actions from the past.
> Make sure to use expressions like:last Friday, yesterday, last year, the day before yesterday, in 2000...

Open Ended

What did you do last night

Past Continuous

>Actions from the past in a specific time.

> we can use the past continuous for the background of a story.

>An action in the past which overlaps another action or a time

> It is formed by the past form of the verb be + an action verb+ing

Open Ended

What were you doing last night while your brother was playing in his room?

Example

• Yan was reading a book, when the phone rang.

• Which action started first?

• Did Yan continue reading the book?

• So what does the word 'when' show us in the sentence?

• We can also flip the sentence and it still makes sense, what would it look like?

• When the phone rang, Yan was reading a book.

• Now let's practice.

Multiple Choice

Julius _____ _______ when Timothy rang the bell.

• were cook

• was cook

• be cooking

• was cooking

Multiple Choice

At 6:15, when you phoned, I ___ a shower.

• had

• was having

Multiple Choice

We ___ TV all evening.

• watched

• were watching

Multiple Choice

Bill ___ TV when Anne came in.

• watched

• was watching

Multiple Choice

My father ___ hard all his life.

• worked

• was working

Multiple Choice

They got married while they ___ at London University.

• studied

• were studying

Multiple Choice

It was a nice evening, so she __ home from work.

• walked

• was walking

Fill in the Blank

"When I called her, she ___(sleep), so she didn't answer."

Fill in the Blank

I was watching a movie when the power___ (go out).

Fill in the Blank

The police caught him when he ____ (shoplift).

Fill in the Blank

When I went into Ann's office, she ___ (to write).