Nível: A2

Objetivo

Usar o past continuous (was/were + verb-ing) para descrever o cenário de fundo em relatos de incidentes e bug reports, e contrastá-lo com o past simple para marcar o evento que interrompe esse cenário.

Explicação

O past continuous descreve uma ação mais longa em andamento no passado. A estrutura é sujeito + was/were + verbo-ing:

• I was debugging when the alert started.
• The server was restarting while the build ran.
• We were checking the logs when the page came in.

Use was com I, he, she, it (e singulares em geral) e were com you, we, they (plural ou você).

O contraste entre os dois tempos é a chave para descrever um cenário de bug:

• Past continuous: ação mais longa, de fundo, em andamento. Ex: I was reviewing the PR.
• Past simple: ação curta, que interrompe ou acontece dentro do cenário. Ex: the alert started.

Junte os dois com when (a ação curta interrompe a contínua) ou while (duas ações em paralelo):

• I was reading the logs when the error appeared.
• The service was restarting while I was deploying.

Esse contraste também funciona para narrar um incidente: comece pelo cenário (We were deploying a new version), marque o evento curto (the alert started) e continue com a investigação (we restarted the service).

Erros comuns

• Esquecer o -ing no past continuous: I was debug deve ser I was debugging.
• Usar was com you/we/they: You was working deve ser You were working.
• Usar o verbo no passado após was/were: I was debugged deve ser I was debugging.
• Misturar os dois tempos sem contraste: I was debugging and the alert was started deve ser I was debugging when the alert started.
• Usar past simple para o cenário longo: I debugged when the alert started perde a ideia de ação em andamento.

Prática guiada

Transforme o cenário em uma narrativa natural:

• Cenário: The engineer was reading the logs. Suddenly, the alert started.

Narrativa: The engineer was reading the logs when, suddenly, the alert started.

• Ações paralelas: The service was restarting. The test was running.

Narrativa: The service was restarting while the test was running.

• Atenção ao auxiliar: I was reviewing. ✓ | We was reviewing. → We were reviewing.

Repare como when introduz a ação curta e while liga duas ações longas.

Resumo

Use was/were + verb-ing para descrever ações mais longas em andamento. Combine com when (interrupção curta) ou while (ações paralelas) para criar contexto de incidente e contrastar com o past simple.