Oraciones en pasado continuo en inglés

Oraciones en el pasado continuo en inglés

Se usa el ‘Past continuous’ para hablar de acciones pasadas, pero en un momento concreto. Echa un vistazo a estas oraciones…

I was walking down the street the other day when I saw Alicia Keys. (this is a sentence in past continious)

Yo estaba trabajando en Vodafone
I was working at Vodafone
Yo trabajaba en Vodafone
I was working at Vodafone
Yo estaba caminando por la playa
I was walking down the beach
Ella estaba mirando por la ventana
She was looking out of the window
Yo estaba pensando en ti
I was thinking about you
Obama estaba hablando
Obama was talking

Profe, dime los conceptos más importantes

Muchas veces se usa el pasado continuo para describir una acción que sucedía al mismo tiempo que otra…
Yo estaba hablando por teléfono cuando la bomba explotó…
…I was talking by telephone when the bomb exploded.

Relación con los demás tiempos verbales
El ‘Past continuous’ es igual que el ‘Present continuous’, pero con el verbo ‘to be’ en pasado.
They are thinking. They were thinking.

Cuidado amigo…Problemas

Ten presente que al ‘Past continuous’ del inglés le corresponden dos formas distintas en español:
1 La perífrasis verbal estar + verbo en gerundio: Yo estaba trabajando – I was working.
2. El pretérito imperfecto: yo trabajaba.

verbos conjugados en past continuous

AFFIRMATIVE	NEGATIVE	INTERROGATIVE
I was playing	I wasn’t playing	Was I playing?
You were playing	You weren’t playing	Were you playing?
He was playing	He wasn’t playing	Was he playing?
She was playing	She wasn’t playing	Was she playing?
It was playing	It wasn’t playing	Was it playing?
We were playing	We weren’t playing	Were we playing?
They were playing	They weren’t playing	Were they playing?

Basta de teoría, profe…dame contexto

Para los alumnos que quieren ver la gramática en contexto tenemos una conversación de nuestro libro ‘Sexy Grammar.’ En este dialogo Jack y Sofia están discutiendo por algo que ocurrió cuando estaban ayudando a una amiga mudarse. Sofia acusa a Jack de flirtear con ella. Jack protesta su inocencia. Hay varios ejemplos del pasado continuo… ¿cuantos puedes ver?

Sofia: What? The argument about you flirting with Angela all afternoon yesterday?
Jack: We weren’t flirting. We were talking and… having a laugh.
Sofia: You were flirting. You and the…dark, Persian kitty cat.
Jack: Oh God, I wish I’d never said that. We weren’t flirting, ok?
Sofia: Oh really? Well you were smiling like some little schoolboy; and the worst thing for me is that she was enjoying it.
Jack: No I wasn’t. And no she wasn’t. But I’ll tell you what…as you said we weren’t going to talk about it in public…and now you’ve changed that…let’s tell everyone the facts so they can decide.
Sofia: Okay.
Jack: Right… you first.
20 Sofia: Okay. It’s very simple. We were round Angela’s house yesterday and you were flirting with her all afternoon. What more do you want? There are no other facts!