The first actual bug: the past continuous for describing a bug
About this lesson
The past continuous and past simple for describing a bug are what this B1 English for IT lesson plan teaches.
- Grammar
- Was or were + -ing for the action in progress and the past simple for the event that interrupts it, joined by when or while: It froze while I was uploading.
- Topic
- Bug reports from merchants and support calls at a fictional payments startup, with words such as freeze, crash, timeout and workaround.
- Activities
- The 1947 moth story, a merchant's email, a support call and a voicemail, self-checking drills, a support chat and a wheel, then a message to write and a story to record.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: Something Went Wrong
Chapter 2The Story: A Moth in the Machine
Chapter 3At Work: The Frozen Upload
Chapter 4Listen: What Were You Doing?
Chapter 5Grammar: It Froze While I Was Uploading
- Study the scheme: past simple and past continuousGrammar schemeTry it
- Fill in the table: past simple and past continuousFill in the tableTry it
- Choose the past simple or the past continuousChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: turn the log into sentencesFill in the gapsUnlock
- Drag the verbs into the support messageDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 6Speak Up: Tell Me What Happened
Chapter 7Homework: Your Bug Story
- Read your phrase bankReal-life documentUnlock
- Put the verbs in the past continuous: questions and answersFill in the gapsUnlock
- Unscramble the bug wordsAnagramUnlock
- Write a support message about a problem you hadWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
- Record the story of a bugSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock
Vocabulary
12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- crash
- freeze
- upload
- reproduce
- an error message
- a screenshot
- a timeout
- a workaround
- intermittent
Grammar: past simple and past continuous for bug stories
A bug story has two layers: what was going on, and the moment something went wrong. Learners put the longer action in the past continuous and the short event that interrupts it in the past simple, join them with when and while, and keep state verbs such as know in the past simple.
Past simple and past continuous: the story of a bug
The longer action in the background: past continuous. The short event that interrupts it: past simple.
A longer action and a short event
The past continuous paints the scene: Erin was uploading a photo. The past simple gives the event that interrupts it: the app froze. A chain of short events takes the past simple too: The app froze, so I closed it and tried again.
A longer action and a short event
- Erin was uploading a photo
- the app froze!
Which tense?
| Use | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a longer action in progress (the background) | past continuous | I was uploading a photo… |
| a short event that interrupts it | past simple | …when the app froze. |
| two longer actions at the same time | past continuous + past continuous | While I was testing, Diego was updating the server. |
| short events, one after another | past simple | The app froze, so I closed it and tried again. |
| state verbs: know, need, want, like | past simple | I knew the password. |
Was or were + -ing
The past continuous is was or were + -ing: she was uploading, What were you doing? Many past simple forms in bug stories are irregular: froze, broke, threw, went. The app was crash is wrong: say The app crashed.
The past continuous: was / were + -ing
| Subject | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / he / she / it | was uploading | wasn't uploading | Was she uploading? |
| you / we / they | were testing | weren't testing | What were you doing? |
Irregular past forms for bug stories
- freeze → froze
- break → broke
- throw (an error) → threw
- run (a test) → ran
- go (blank, off) → went
- know → knew
When or while?
When usually introduces the short event, in the past simple: I was uploading a photo when the app froze. While introduces the longer action, in the past continuous: The app froze while I was uploading a photo.
when + past simple: the short event
- I was uploading a photo when the app froze.
- When I clicked Save, the page went blank.
while + past continuous: the longer action
- The app froze while I was uploading a photo.
- While Erin was uploading, her assistant was issuing a refund.
From 1947 to today
The examples mix 1947 and today: The moth was causing a problem, so the team removed it. While Erin was uploading the photo, her assistant was issuing a refund. A past time can frame an action in progress: In 1947, engineers were already using the word bug.
- The moth was causing a problem, so the team removed it.background, then the event
- In 1947, engineers were already using the word “bug”.an action in progress at that time
- Erin was uploading a photo when the app froze.longer action + short event
- While Erin was uploading the photo, her assistant was issuing a refund.two actions at the same time
- Wes was fixing a typo when he broke the login page.longer action + short event
Spelling -ing and state verbs
Most verbs just add -ing, but freeze drops its e (freezing), and run and stop double the last letter (running, stopping). State verbs stay in the past simple, among them know, need and want: I knew the password, not I was knowing.
Spelling -ing and state verbs
Most verbs just add -ing: upload → uploading. A final -e goes: freeze → freezing. Short verbs like run and stop double the last letter: running, stopping. Try → trying. State verbs (know, need, want, like) stay in the past simple: I knew, not I was knowing.
Typical mistakes
While I uploaded the file, the app was freezing.
While I was uploading the file, the app froze.
the longer action: past continuous; the short event: past simple
The app was crash.
The app crashed.
was + -ing, or the past simple
When I was clicking Save, the page was going blank.
When I clicked Save, the page went blank.
two short events: past simple
I was knowing the password.
I knew the password.
know is a state verb
More lessons on this grammar: Past continuous lessons and exercises · Past simple lessons and exercises
Try the past simple and past continuous exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 12 auto-checked exercises
- 3 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 2 real-life documents
- 1 article
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 2 audio clips
- 1 picture
- 2 transcripts
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- describe a bug so a developer can work on it: what you were doing, what went wrong and what you did next
- set the scene with the past continuous and add the short event in the past simple: I was uploading a photo when the app froze.
- join two actions with while and when: While I was uploading the photo, my assistant was issuing a refund.
- ask what a user was doing: What were you doing when the app crashed? Was anyone else using the account?
Lesson 7 opens unit 3 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, Bugs and tickets, which builds clear bug reports a colleague can reproduce. It takes the past continuous and the when and while of A2.2 lessons 9 and 10 into support work, and lesson 8 then turns a bug story into steps to reproduce. A developer needs both layers of the story: what the user was doing, and what went wrong.
After twelve word cards with pictures and audio, from relay and logbook to timeout and intermittent, students read about the moth found in a relay of Harvard's Mark II in 1947 and why the logbook note was a joke. At work, they read a merchant's bug report, forwarded by support, and hear an AI-voiced call in which support and a developer work out what was happening; a voicemail then gives the merchant a workaround. The scheme leads into four drills that check themselves, among them a table with both past forms of eight verbs.
Speaking opens with a support chat in which students reply to a merchant, asking What were you doing when the app crashed?, then a wheel of bug stories and a support role-play. At home, students read a phrase bank and do a gap-fill of past continuous questions and an anagram of bug words, which check themselves, then write a support message and record the story of a bug for the teacher to review.
- Grammar:
- past continuous · past simple vs past continuous · when and while
- Topic:
- bugs · bug reports · computer history
Teaching tips
- Turn a log into a story: write timed entries on the board, such as 2:40–2:45 upload photo and 2:41 app freezes, and let learners join them with when or while.
- Play the support agent: one learner reports a frozen app in one vague line, and the other may ask only past continuous questions, such as What were you doing? and Was anyone else using it?, until the story is clear.
- One-to-one, start from the learner's last bug: they tell it with I was… when… while you write it down, then you underline every verb together and check which ones needed -ing.
- Let non-developers tell their own bugs: in an in-company group, testers, designers and support staff describe a problem with a printer, a video call or a banking app, as the writing task allows.
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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team
24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course
Unit 1 Hello, team
roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms
Unit 2 The daily standup
updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to
Unit 3 Bugs and tickets
clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers
Lesson 7 · you're hereThe first actual bugPast simple and past continuous for bug stories
Lesson 8Steps to reproduceImperatives and the zero conditional for bug reports
Lesson 9The email that couldn't go 500 milesQuantifiers in bug tickets
Unit 4 Code review
kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional
Unit 5 How it works
explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses
Unit 6 Remote and async
chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous
Unit 7 Users and clients
user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons
Unit 8 Your next job
resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional
