3. Paco's parents were getting excited about the trip(past continuous)

Caso práctico

The Past Continuous Tense: affirmative

Paco's parents were getting excited about the trip. It wasn't the first time that Paco had travelled abroad but this time was different. They knew that their son was going to be far away for a long time.

But Paco wasn't so excited as his parents. He was reading a lot about Great Britain, London and other main British cities. He was buying some books while his parents were trying to pack his luggage. They were wondering about the most suitable things for Paco to take with him.

maleta
Imagen de striatic en Flickr. Licencia CC

Paco was thinking about how much money he had to exchange for his trip. How much would a pound sterling be?

We'll see that later.

Can you see any Past Continuous affirmative forms in the text? Of course you can.
e u

Ejercicio Resuelto

Put the verbs in brackets in the affirmative form of the past continuous tense.

  1. Paco __________ (to learn) the currencies of some European countries before the trip.
  2. Alex and Andrés __________ (to help) Paco with the trip.
  3. Sonia __________ (to try) to buy a good bilingual dictionary for his brother.
  4. Antonio and Isabel __________(to buy) lots of things for Paco.
  5. Paco __________ (to change) euros into pounds sterling.

Comprueba lo aprendido

Read the paragraph below and fill in the missing past continuous affirmative forms.
Paco (to enjoy) himself planning the trip. Everybody in his family (to help) him. Sonia (to give) Paco a hand by buying books, guides and maps about Britain. Antonio and Isabel (to pack) Paco's luggage. His friends (to search) for some useful information for Paco on the Internet .

Habilitar JavaScript

Importante

Trip, travel or journey?

What is the difference between these words?

Journey = a noun. The movement from A to B, e.g.: My journey to work takes 30 minutes.

travel= a verb. To move from one place to another, e.g.: I travelled from the USA to China .

trip= a noun. It includes movement plus some activity (business, holidays, etc), e.g.: Did you have a good trip?

We don't use travel as a noun except, occasionally in plural in literature (like Gulliver's Travels).

I had a good travel

Curiosidad

The full, official name, pound sterling, (plural: pounds sterling) is used mainly in formal contexts and also when it is necessary to distinguish the United Kingdom currency from other currencies with the same name. Otherwise the term pound is normally used. The currency name is sometimes abbreviated to just sterling, particularly in the wholesale financial markets, but not when referring to specific amounts; for example, "Payment is accepted in sterling" but never "These cost five sterling".
libras
Imagen de stux en Pixabay. Licencia CC
The abbreviations "ster." or "stg." are sometimes used. The term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. A common slang term is quid (singular and plural) which is thought to derive from the Latin phrase "quid pro quo".
The currency sign is the pound sign, originally with two cross-bars, then when the currency was decimalised £ with a single cross-bar. The pound sign derives from the blackletter "L", an abbreviation of Librae in Roman £sd units (librae, solidi, denarii) used for pounds, shillings and pence in the British pre-decimal duodecimal currency system. Libra was the basic Roman unit of weight, derived from the Latin word for scales or balance.

Para saber más

For further practice with exercises on Past Progressive or continuous, click here.

A brief explanation to refresh your knowledge of the Past Continuous.