Hello! This video is about the difference between two tenses; between 'Lee came home'
(past tense) and 'they were having lunch when something happened'. Hope you enjoy it!
I've got a little sequence of events here which happened yesterday so I'll put a clock
at the top there, I'll just draw a clock showing quarter to one and here is a picture of Lee.
Lee came home at a quarter to one; 'Lee arrived at 12:45'. Now let's move on a little bit,
fifteen minutes and I'll put another clock up here, one o'clock, I'll just draw one o'clock,
there we go. At one o'clock Lee and his friend Sue sat down for lunch; 'Lee and Sue' (oops)
'Lee and Sue sat down at one o'clock'.
And fifteen minutes later, I'll draw another clock here for one fifteen, is Lee and Sue
having lunch and she's turning round. 'At one fifteen they were having lunch, when...'
something happened. Oh! The telephone rang, the phone rang and that's the key difference
between the two tenses - they were doing something when something else interrupted.
Now here are some example, and first of all I want to put on the left hand side, I want
to put what 'You say' (somebody says), so that's you and on the right hand side I'm
going to put what 'I understand'. So here's the first thing that you say 'I was reading
'Hamlet' yesterday...' Ok, 'I was reading Hamlet yesterday', I understand 'so you didn't
finish', if you were reading it, that would suggest to me that you didn't finish.
Here's the next sentence; 'The plumber was working in my kitchen...', oh dear, and? Ok,
then what? A pipe broke? There was a flood? And the next one 'My brothers were at the
movies, watching 'Avatar'...' Ok, then something happened. Film stopped? And what happened?
And what happened? There was an accident? Somebody fell ill?
And the next sentence 'I was starting my homework last night...' You were starting your homework
last night? That suggests to me that you didn't finish it and that you didn't even start it!
You were starting it, so you didn't do it. And here's the last sentence 'I was running
home in the snow' Ok, it was winter then, then what happened? And you fell? Or there
was an accident? Or what?
So, now I'd like to go back to the first sentence again 'I was reading Hamlet', I'll just underline
'was reading', that's not complete. 'I was working', 'the plumber was working', sorry,
that's not complete. 'My brothers were watching' it's split but it's still the same. 'I was
starting my homework', 'I was starting my homework' and finally, 'I was running home
in the snow'. All of those are activities which were interrupted by something else so
we can say that the past simple (I did, for example) is complete, it's finished, in the
past and it's done. But if you use the past progressive or, if you like, the past continuous,
'I was doing' (oops, sorry) 'I was doing', then that's incomplete and is unfinished in
some way.
So that's the main difference between the two tenses. Ok, that's all, bye for now!