Udvidet præteritum

Udvidet præteritum funktioner

Udvidet præteritum (past continuous) beskriver handlinger eller begivenheder, som er foregået før nu, som begyndte i fortiden og stadig foregår, når vi snakker om dem. Med andre ord udtrykker dem en uafsluttet eller ufuldstændig handling i fortiden.

Den bruges:

Ofte til at beskrive baggrunden i en historie skrevet i præteritum, fx "The sun was shining and the birds were singing as the elephant came out of the jungle. The other animals were relaxing in the shade of the trees, but the elephant moved very quickly. She was looking for her baby, and she didn't notice the hunter who was watching her through his binoculars. When the shot rang out, she was running towards the river..."
til at beskrive en uafsluttet handling, der er blevet afbrudt af en anden begivenhed eller handling, fx "I was having a beautiful dream when the alarm clock rang."
til at udtrykke en ændret mening, fx "I was going to spend the day at the beach but I've decided to get my homework done instead."
med 'wonder' til at komme med en høflig forespørgsel, fx "I was wondering if you could baby-sit for me tonight."

Eksempler

They were waiting for the bus when the accident happened.
Caroline was skiing when she broke her leg.
When we arrived he was having a bath.
When the fire started I was watching television.

Bemærk: vi bruger præteritum med udsagnsord, der normalt ikke bruges i udvidet (continuous) form.

Dannelse af udvidet præteritum

Udsagnsord i udvidet præteritum dannes af to elementer: en datidsform af udsagnsordet "to be" (was/were) og stammen af hovedudsagnsordet +ing.

Grundled	was/were	stammen + ing
They	were	watching
Bekræftende
She	was	reading
Nægtende
She	wasn't	reading
Spørgende
Was	she	reading?
Spørgende nægtende
Wasn't	she	reading?

To play, udvidet præteritum

Bekræftende	Nægtende	Spørgende
I was playing	I was not playing	Was I playing?
You were playing	You were not playing	Were you playing?
He was playing	He wasn't playing	Was he playing?
We were playing	We weren't playing	Were we playing?
They were playing	They weren't playing	Were they playing?