This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2374, Past Progressive Grammar for English Interruptions.
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A key sign of a fluent speaker is being able to express your complex thoughts using correct grammar.
Today get our tips on using the past progressive correctly in English.
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Hello, Lindsey. How are you today?
Excellent. Aubrey, feeling great.
Weekend is coming up.
How about you? How's it going?
Excellent. I have a question.
I am curious. What were you doing right before we started recording?
Ooh, right before we started recording, I was catching up on emails.
It was 8 30 a .m. or 9 30 a .m.
So starting my day.
Oh, makes sense. That's kind of a boring answer.
Yes, kind of boring.
But, you know what, a lot of you out there, that's probably what you were doing before you listened to this podcast.
Right. We're all responding to emails.
So much of our day anymore.
I know. It's amazing.
It just takes over, you know, they just come in and they just never stop coming in, the never ending list of emails to respond to.
What about you, Abby?
What were you doing?
Before we started recording today, I did a Peloton ride right before we started recording.
That was fun. Every now and then they have live rides and it's really fun to do it live with the instructor.
Usually it's like a prerecorded one, but when I can, I try to jump on and do the live ride.
But how long was the ride?
It was just a 15 minute ride.
Sometimes they're quite a bit longer, but sometimes they're really short.
So you can squeeze them in yeah fantastic.
Yeah. All right. Good.
What are we getting into today?
Yeah, the reason I asked, you know, what were you doing before you started recording for we talked about this in part one of this series with past progressive.
We often use it for interrupted actions.
So this is part two of a series, but you can listen to this one first.
Stay to the end and we'll share what part one was, but these can be listened to out of order.
Yes, guys. Make sure you hit the follow button right here on all our English so you don't miss Any of these series that we do or any of our episodes, we drop five days a week.
All right. So we often get questions from students about past progressive versus past simple.
How do I know whether to use that verb ING or go with past simple?
And today we're talking about the main time we use past progressive is for simultaneous and interrupted actions.
So you use past progressive there because you were answering emails when you had to jump on this call to record podcasts.
Exactly, so we have an example here.
Shall I go ahead with the example?
Yeah, let's do it. While I was making dinner, I helped my daughter with her homework.
So this is simultaneous actions, right?
My mom often has to multitask as well as everybody, really, but while you're doing one thing, you do something else.
And here, this is where we have past progressive while I was making dinner, and then the other action can be past simple.
if it's something that was completed at a specific moment in the past.
Yeah, it can be past simple as an option.
It could also be past progressive too, right?
While I was waiting dinner.
I was helping my daughter with her homework.
Exactly. It depends on the action.
And if you are referring to it as a specific point in time, that's why this is really tricky grammar.
It's difficult to know sometimes which to choose.
All right. What else do we have to know here, Aubrey?
All right, so we're going to dive into the two times, right?
Simultaneous actions, interrupted So the first one, the normal construction is when I was doing something, or while I was doing something, something else happened.
Okay, so for example, when I was eating breakfast, I spilled my orange juice.
Yeah, so the breakdown of grammar here, the first part of the sentence is an adverb clause, describing this action and how it happened when it was interrupted.
And the second part is an independent clause.
This can stand alone as a sentence so you have either while or when the subject and then past progressive so that was or were with verb ing and then the next part of the sentence subject and then either a past simple verb or like you pointed out Lindsay depending on the sentence past progressive again.
Love it all right and thinking about that construction there here's another Another example, while I was fixing the car, she handed me tools and kept me company.
Yeah, yeah, this is kind of a bonus to keep someone company.
I say this a lot, you want me to keep you company.
You want me to like chat with you kind of entertain you while you're working.
Right, exactly. Or while you're doing anything, maybe you're going maybe you want to accompany someone to a doctor's visit, and you're actually asking, Do you want some support?
But you're trying to lighten that and make it a little less serious.
you might say, hey, would you like me to keep you company?
I'll come to the doctor's visit with you, that kind of thing.
Good point, right? And this is often used, my grandmother would always say this, come over and keep me company.
I mean, just like chat with me maybe we'll do a word search together, right?
Just like, let's just visit and often, instead we'll say, I'll keep you company or keep me company.
I love it. Is there anything we have to know about commas here when And we're writing this.
Yeah. So for this construction, when you have an adverb clause like when I was doing something here, you always have to use a comma after it when it comes at the beginning of a sentence.
And this is because an adverb clause that starts a sentence is considered an introductory element.
So it requires a comma to separate it from the main clause.
And the tricky thing is here, depending on the construction of the sentence, there won't always be a comma.
So the second one we're going to teach, there's no comma.
Oh, okay. Good to know.
Introductory element sounds very fancy.
Yes it does, right?
Kind of a tricky grammar.
And these, often we will use these introductory elements when we're trying to either up level our speech or our writing, we're trying to use complex sentences.
And so we'll often use these to transition between ideas.
Which I know a lot of our listeners are at that point in their learning, they're wanting to get more complex, so that what they're saying can match what they're thinking.
right? They have complex thoughts.
Exactly. You don't wanna be just saying and writing simple choppy sentences when you have complex, interesting thoughts.
You want to, you want them to be dressed, you know, gift wrapped or just as as fancy as your thoughts are.
Exactly. And that's why we're here.
I love it. Alright.
Let's go there. Number two, Aubrey, what is the second scenario grammar construction?
Yes. Right. Number two is, you know, something was done.
I did something while something else was happening.
So because it's flipped and the adverb clause at the end, it's not introductory, there's no comma in this construction.
Okay. For example, you called me when I was shopping.
Okay, exactly. No comma here, right?
Because the adverb clause is at the end when I was shopping.
So the first part of these sentences is the independent clause, right?
You called me. That's a complete sentence.
And then the second part is your adverb clause, when I was shopping.
So there we have the while, or when subject and past progressive, which is was or were depending on the verb and then verb by ng.
Perfect. And the second example, he got home while I was making dinner.
Exactly. So your independent clause, he got home that could be a sentence on its own.
And then while I was making dinner as our adverb clause, no comma in this sentence, because we're not introducing the sentence.
It doesn't start the sentence.
Love it. Imagine this.
You walk into a social event at work and you see tons of colleagues that you'd like to get to know better.
But when you walk up to them, your mind goes blank.
How would you start that conversation with your colleagues?
This is one of the many things that we show you how to do on our other Business English podcast.
Search for business English right now and hit the follow button and come back for new episodes Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
See you there. All right, Aubrey, we've gone through some pretty dense grammar here, which we love.
We need this. We need the foundations, right?
Let's go into a role play and see how it comes to light, comes to action.
Okay. Yeah, so you and I were classmates and I missed class last week.
And so let's dive in here.
All right. Where were you last week?
I went to the beach, it was amazing.
What? I was stuck in class while you were playing at the beach.
I'm sorry. Actually though, can I get your notes?
I'll owe you one. When I was hanging out on the sand, I thought, I hope Lindsey is taking notes so I can get them from her.
I bet. Well, I have to miss class later this month, so be sure to take copious notes to share with me.
Did you ever have that situation where a classmate would be like, I was at the beach, can I get your notes?
Yeah, of course, that's so fun, and then you were there taking the notes.
It's one thing if they were sick, if they're like, I was just on vacation.
Here you go. Do it a little more grudgingly.
Yeah, maybe write some incorrect things.
You would never. Never, never.
All right so then what did we say here?
So you said I went to the beach it was amazing, right?
And here you said I was stuck in class while you were playing at the beach.
So this there's no comma here because our adverb clause is at the end right I was stuck in class as an independent clause could be a sentence by itself and then while you were playing at the beach the adverb clause is at the end so there'll be no comma in this sentence.
Love it and then the next First thing you said, I'll owe you one.
I would say I owe you one, right?
I guess you're saying in the future, if you do this for me.
I'm saying in the future.
If you do this for me, I'll owe you one.
Actually that makes more sense.
Yeah. I'll owe you one.
When I was hanging out in the sand, I thought, right?
Yeah. And then I narrate my thoughts.
I thought, I hope Lindsay is taking good notes here.
So this again, when I was hanging out on the sand, we'll have a comma after it because this is an introductory adverb clause.
We use this to introduce the thought to start the sentence.
So after that adverb clause, we have a comma.
And then after that will be an independent clause, a full sentence that could stand on its own.
I thought... And then everything I was thinking.
And it's important, this is not what today's episode is about, but it's important to know that we do change or tone a voice when we report our thinking.
Right, Aubrey? Yes, right.
That's a good point.
If I just say, I thought I hope Lindsay is taking note...
It it would be sort of confusing, right?
Change our tone of voice to make it clear that we're narrating our thoughts.
Yeah. So when I was hanging out on the sand, I thought, I hope Lindsay is taking notes so I can get them from her.
There has to be some kind of a change in your tone there.
Yeah. It's sort of becomes a little sing -songy.
Sometimes Lindsay is taking notes.
I do that sometimes for sure.
Oh my gosh. This is fantastic.
What's a takeaway for today.
I know this is moving our listeners closer to where they want to be expressing complex thoughts.
Absolutely right. Past progressive, it can be difficult to know whether to use past progressive or past simple.
With this series, it will be a lot more clear to you which to choose, why natives choose one or the other.
So definitely scroll up for part one that was all year's English 2360.
Your grammar questions answered past simple or past progressive.
Yes. And keep in mind guys, if you really want to dig deep into grammar, the place to go is into our courses, right?
This is where you get to do exercises and practice and take quizzes and make sure you're actually learning, really going deeper.
It's one step deeper than the podcast.
And we do have a new course coming out soon, professional English level one, where it is a review of some of these grammar points, these grammar tenses.
All right. So just be ready for that in the next few weeks.
All right. Yes. And these have amazing fluency activities speaking and writing where you have a chance to practice all of these so that you are ready to use all of that learning to connect in English.
All right. So good.
And where else should we go, Aubrey?
Yeah. And be sure to scroll up.
Don't miss that part one and be sure to hit follow.
If you did miss it, that means you're missing amazing episodes.
Love it. I'll see you on the next episode, Aubrey.
Have a good one. Bye.
See you next time. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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