. past continous tense .

We got the presentation from our classmates that consist from Maizatul Liyana , Mel , Raihana and Masfarah . They performed very well and I really understand what they presented to us xD

FORM

[was/were + present participle]

Examples:

• You were studying when she called.
• Were you studying when she called?
• You were not studying when she called.

Complete List of Past Continuous Forms

USE 1 Interrupted Action in the Past

Use the Past Continuous to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted. The interruption is usually a shorter action in the Simple Past. Remember this can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time.

Examples:

• I was watching TV when she called.
• When the phone rang, she was writing a letter.
• While we were having the picnic, it started to rain.
• What were you doing when the earthquake started?
• I was listening to my iPod, so I didn't hear the fire alarm.
• You were not listening to me when I told you to turn the oven off.
• While John was sleeping last night, someone stole his car.
• Sammy was waiting for us when we got off the plane.
• While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off.
• A: What were you doing when you broke your leg?
  B: I was snowboarding.

USE 2 Specific Time as an Interruption

In USE 1, described above, the Past Continuous is interrupted by a shorter action in the Simple Past. However, you can also use a specific time as an interruption.

Examples:

• Last night at 6 PM, I was eating dinner.
• At midnight, we were still driving through the desert.
• Yesterday at this time, I was sitting at my desk at work.

IMPORTANT

In the Simple Past, a specific time is used to show when an action began or finished. In the Past Continuous, a specific time only interrupts the action.

Examples:

• Last night at 6 PM, I ate dinner.
  I started eating at 6 PM.
• Last night at 6 PM, I was eating dinner.
  I started earlier; and at 6 PM, I was in the process of eating dinner.

USE 3 Parallel Actions

When you use the Past Continuous with two actions in the same sentence, it expresses the idea that both actions were happening at the same time. The actions are parallel.

Examples:

• I was studying while he was making dinner.
• While Ellen was reading, Tim was watching television.
• Were you listening while he was talking?
• I wasn't paying attention while I was writing the letter, so I made several mistakes.
• What were you doing while you were waiting?
• Thomas wasn't working, and I wasn't working either.
• They were eating dinner, discussing their plans, and having a good time.

USE 4 Atmosphere

In English, we often use a series of parallel actions to describe the atmosphere at a particular time in the past.

Example:

• When I walked into the office, several people were busily typing, some were talking on the phones, the boss was yelling directions, and customers were waiting to be helped. One customer was yelling at a secretary and waving his hands. Others were complaining to each other about the bad service.

USE 5 Repetition and Irritation with "Always"

The Past Continuous with words such as "always" or "constantly" expresses the idea that something irritating or shocking often happened in the past. The concept is very similar to the expression "used to" but with negative emotion. Remember to put the words "always" or "constantly" between "be" and "verb+ing."

Examples:

• She was always coming to class late.
• He was constantly talking. He annoyed everyone.
• I didn't like them because they were always complaining.

While vs. When

Clauses are groups of words which have meaning, but are often not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word "when" such as "when she called" or "when it bit me." Other clauses begin with "while" such as "while she was sleeping" and "while he was surfing." When you talk about things in the past, "when" is most often followed by the verb tense Simple Past, whereas "while" is usually followed by Past Continuous. "While" expresses the idea of "during that time." Study the examples below. They have similar meanings, but they emphasize different parts of the sentence.

Examples:

• I was studying when she called.
• While I was studying, she called.

REMEMBER Non-Continuous Verbs / Mixed Verbs

It is important to remember that Non-Continuous Verbs cannot be used in any continuous tenses. Also, certain non-continuous meanings for Mixed Verbs cannot be used in continuous tenses. Instead of using Past Continuous with these verbs, you must use Simple Past.

Examples:

• Jane was being at my house when you arrived. Not Correct
• Jane was at my house when you arrived. Correct

ADVERB PLACEMENT

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

Examples:

• You were just studying when she called.
• Were you just studying when she called?

ACTIVE / PASSIVE

Examples:

• The salesman was helping the customer when the thief came into the store. Active
• The customer was being helped by the salesman when the thief came into the store.

SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Simple Past

FORM

[VERB+ed] or irregular verbs

Examples:

• You called Debbie.
• Did you call Debbie?
• You did not call Debbie.

Complete List of Simple Past Forms

USE 1 Completed Action in the Past

Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind.

Examples:

• I saw a movie yesterday.
• I didn't see a play yesterday.
• Last year, I traveled to Japan.
• Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.
• Did you have dinner last night?
• She washed her car.
• He didn't wash his car.

USE 2 A Series of Completed Actions

We use the Simple Past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.

Examples:

• I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.
• He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.
• Did you add flour, pour in the milk, and then add the eggs?

USE 3 Duration in Past

The Simple Past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a longer action often indicated by expressions such as: for two years, for five minutes, all day, all year, etc.

Examples:

• I lived in Brazil for two years.
• Shauna studied Japanese for five years.
• They sat at the beach all day.
• They did not stay at the party the entire time.
• We talked on the phone for thirty minutes.
• A: How long did you wait for them?
  B: We waited for one hour.

USE 4 Habits in the Past

The Simple Past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It can have the same meaning as "used to." To make it clear that we are talking about a habit, we often add expressions such as: always, often, usually, never, when I was a child, when I was younger, etc.

Examples:

• I studied French when I was a child.
• He played the violin.
• He didn't play the piano.
• Did you play a musical instrument when you were a kid?
• She worked at the movie theater after school.
• They never went to school, they always skipped class.

USE 5 Past Facts or Generalizations

The Simple Past can also be used to describe past facts or generalizations which are no longer true. As in USE 4 above, this use of the Simple Past is quite similar to the expression "used to."

Examples:

• She was shy as a child, but now she is very outgoing.
• He didn't like tomatoes before.
• Did you live in Texas when you were a kid?
• People paid much more to make cell phone calls in the past.

IMPORTANT When-Clauses Happen First

Clauses are groups of words which have meaning but are often not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word "when" such as "when I dropped my pen..." or "when class began..." These clauses are called when-clauses, and they are very important. The examples below contain when-clauses.

Examples:

• When I paid her one dollar, she answered my question.
• She answered my question when I paid her one dollar.

When-clauses are important because they always happen first when both clauses are in the Simple Past. Both of the examples above mean the same thing: first, I paid her one dollar, and then, she answered my question. It is not important whether "when I paid her one dollar" is at the beginning of the sentence or at the end of the sentence. However, the example below has a different meaning. First, she answered my question, and then, I paid her one dollar.

Example:

• I paid her one dollar when she answered my question.

ADVERB PLACEMENT

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

Examples:

• You just called Debbie.
• Did you just call Debbie?

ACTIVE / PASSIVE

Examples:

• Tom repaired the car. Active
• The car was repaired by Tom. 

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html

DETERMINERS

Today we got the presentation about Determiner and Simple past tense. The presenter was Hadayu, Seha, Syuhada and rabiatul Adawiyah. They performed very well and I very enjoyed it.

Determiner (linguistics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A determiner is a noun-modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun-phrase in the context, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives. This function is usually performed by articles, demonstratives, possessive determiners, orquantifiers.

Examples
The girl is a student. I've lost my keys. Some folks get all the luck. Which book is that? I only had two drinks. I'll take that one. Both windows were open.

Contents   [hide]  1 Function 1.1 English determiners 2 Determiner Class 2.1 English determiners 2.1.1 Differences from adjectives 2.1.2 Differences from pronouns 2.2 Other realisations 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Function

In most Indo-European languages, determiners are either independent words or clitics that precede the rest of the noun phrase (NP). In other languages, determiners are prefixed or suffixed to the noun, or even change the noun's form. For example, in Swedish bok "book", when definite, becomes boken "the book" (suffixed definite articles are common in Scandinavian languages), while in Romanian caiet "notebook" becomes caietul "the notebook".

Some constructions, such as those that use names of school subjects ("Physics uses mathematics"), don't use a determiner. This condition is called the "zero determiner" instance.

X-bar theory contends that every noun has a corresponding determiner. In a case where a noun does not have a pronounced determiner, X-bar theory hypothesizes the presence of a zero article.

[edit]English determiners

The determiner function is usually performed by the determiner class of words, but can also be filled by words from other entities:

1. Basic determiners are words from the determiner class (e.g. the girl, those pencils) or determiner phrases (e.g. almost all people, more than two problems).
2. Subject determiners are possessive noun phrases (e.g. his daughter, the boy's friend).
3. Minor determiners are plain NPs (e.g. what colour carpet, this size shoes) and prepositional phrases (under twenty meters, up to twelve people).

[edit]Determiner Class

A determiner establishes the reference of a noun or noun-phrase, including quantity, rather than its attributes as expressed by adjectives. Despite this tendency, determiners have a variety of functions including, in English, modifiers in adjective phrases and determiner phrases, and even markers of coordination.

This word class, or part of speech, exists in many languages, including English, though most English dictionaries still classify determiners under other parts of speech. Determiners usually include articles, and may include items likedemonstratives, possessive determiners, quantifiers, and cardinal numbers, depending on the language.

[edit]English determiners

Determiners, in English, form a closed class of words that number about 50 (not counting the cardinal numerals) and include^[1]:

• Alternative determiners: another, other, somebody else, different
• Articles: a, an, the
• Cardinal numbers: zero, one, two, fifty, infinite, etc.
• Degree determiners/Partitive determiners: many, much, few, little, couple, several, most
• Demonstratives: this, that, these, those, which
• Disjunctive determiners: either, neither
• Distributive determiners: each, every
• Elective determiners: any, either, whichever
• Equative determiners: the same
• Evaluative determiners: such, that, so
• Exclamative determiners: what eyes!
• Existential determiners: some, any
• Interrogative and relative determiners: which, what, whichever, whatever
• Multal determiners: a lot of, many, several, much
• Negative determiners: no, neither
• Paucal determiners: a few, a little, some
• Personal determiners: we teachers, you guys
• Possessive determiners: my, your, our, his, her, etc.
• Quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every, each, any, no, etc.
• Sufficiency determiners: enough, sufficient, plenty
• Uniquitive determiners: the only, the, this, that, these, those
• Universal determiners: all, both

Each of these determiners can be classified as:

• Definite determiners, which limit their reference back to a specific already-established entity, or one whose identity can universally be taken for granted. (cardinals, demonstratives, equatives, evaluatives, exclamatives, relatives, personals, possessives, uniquitives)
• Indefinite determiners, which broaden their referent to one not previously specified, or otherwise newly introduced into discourse. (disjunctives, electives, existentials, interrogatives, negatives, universals)

Many of these can also be either or, thus allowing such pairs as (1)the (2)other one, or (1)an(2)other one. (alternatives, articles, partitives, distributives, quantifiers)

While many words belong to this lexical category exclusively, others belong to a number of categories, for example, the pronoun what in What is good as opposed to the determiner what in what one is good. While numerals exist as nouns, it is debated whether numerals are determiners or not^[2]. For instance, while the English numbers below 100 generally can't take a determiner, for example *"a ninety men", numerals for 100 and higher may optionally behave like nouns and take a determiner of their own, such as "a hundred men." Similarly, while pronouns like my, your, etc. function as determiners in a noun phrase, many grammars do not make the distinction between class and function and so lump these in with determiners.

For a mostly complete list, see Wiktionary.

[edit]Differences from adjectives

Traditional English grammar does not include determiners and calls most determiners adjectives. There are, however, a number of key differences between determiners and adjectives. (The [*] indicates intentionally incorrect grammar.)

1. In English, articles, demonstratives, and possessive determiners cannot co-occur in the same phrase, while any number of adjectives are typically allowed.
   1. A big green English book
   2. * The his book
2. Most determiners cannot occur alone in predicative complement position; most adjectives can.
   1. He is happy.
   2. * He is the.
3. Most determiners are not gradable, while adjectives typically are.
   1. happy, happier, happiest
   2. (However in colloquial usage an English speaker might say [eg] "This is very much my house" for emphasis)
4. Some determiners have corresponding pronouns, while adjectives don't.
   1. Each likes something different.
   2. * Big likes something different.
5. Adjectives can modify singular or plural nouns, while some determiners can only modify one or the other.
   1. a big person / big people
   2. many people / * many person
6. Adjectives are never obligatory, while determiners often are.

[edit]Differences from pronouns

Determiners such as this, all, and some can often occur without a noun. In traditional grammar, these are called pronouns. There are, however, a number of key differences between such determiners and pronouns.

1. Pronouns may occur in tag questions. Determiners cannot.
   1. This is delicious, isn't it?
   2. *This is delicious, isn't this?
2. In phrasal verbs, pronouns must appear between the verb and particle. Determiners may occur after the particle.
   1. pick it up
   2. *pick up it
   3. pick this up
   4. pick up this