[Grammar in Use Intermediate] Unit 6. Past Continuous

과거시제를 공부한 것에 이어서 과거진행형에 대해 공부해보겠습니다.

Unit.6 Past Continuous (I was doing)

A. I was doing something = I was in the middle of doing something at a certain time.

The action or situation had already started before this time, but had not finished:
☞ 과거진행형은 이전의 특정 시간 때에 어떤 일을 하고 있는 것을 의미합니다. 그 행동이나 상황이 이미 시작되었으나 그 특정 시간 때에는 끝나지 않은 상태입니다.

  

 

예)
- This time last year I was living in Brazil.
- What were you doing at 10:00 last night?
- I waved to Helen, but she wasn't looking.

B. Compare the past continuous(I was doing) and simple past(I did):
☞ 과거진행형과 단순과거를 비교해보면 다음과 같습니다.

Past continuous (in the middle of an action)	Simple past (complete action)
- I was walking home when I met Dave. - Kate was watching television when we arrived.	- I walked home after the party last night. - Kate watched television a lot when she was sick last year.

 

C. We often use the simple past and the past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else:
☞ 우리는 종종 과거의 어떤 일이 다른 일 중간에 발생했을 경우 단순과거와 과거진행형을 같이 씁니다.

예)
- Matt burned his hand while he was cooking dinner.
- It was raining when I got up.
- I saw you in the park yesterday. You were sitting on the grass and reading a book.

But we use the simple past to say that one thing happened after another:
☞ 하지만 순차적으로 어떤 일이 끝난 후에 다른 일이 발생했을 때는 단순과거를 사용합니다.

예)
- I was walking downtown when I saw Dave. So I stopped, and we talked for a while.
☞ 이 예문에서 "내가 Dave를 봤을 때 나는 downtown으로 걸어가고 있었다"라는 의미이므로 was walking이 쓰였고, "그래서 나는 멈췄고 잠시동안 이야기했다"이므로 stopped 와 talked로 표현했습니다.

Compare:

When Karen arrived, we were having dinner.   (=we had already started before she arrived.) ☞ Karen이 도착하기 전에 이미 우리가 먹고 있었음.

When Karen arrived, we had dinner.   (=Karen arrived, and then we had dinner together.) ☞ Karen이 도착한 뒤 우리가 저녁을 먹었음.

 

D. Some verbs (for example, know and want) are not normally used in the continuous:
☞ know와 want 같은 몇몇 동사는 진행형에 쓰이지 않습니다.
예)
- We were good friends. We knew each other well. (not We were knowing)
- I was having a good time at the party, but Chris wanted to go home. (not was wanting)