Dear students,
Welcome to our first post on the blog. Today we study Past Simple vs Past Continuous.
When do we use the Past Simple? Well, we use it to talk about finished actions that happened once or more in the past. Remember, these actions have already finished. For example, I went to London last summer.
Please, remember there are regular and irregular verbs and the different patterns for the afirmative (+) and negative (-) sentences and questions (?).
What about the Past Continuous? We use the Past Continuous to talk about what was happening or what we were doing when something happened. For example, I was watching TV. For the Past Continuous we must use verb To Be in the Past Simple verb tense and the -ing form of the main verb (e.g., was listening, were talking, wasn’t looking…). Now, look againg at the first and second examples to see the difference.
Can we use the Past Simple and the Past Continuous together in the same sentence? YES. It’s very easy. Just use ‘when‘ with the Past Simple (for example, I was watching TV when Peter arrived from work) or with the Past Continuous (for example, Peter got home when I was watching TV).
Try this exercise you can do online.
Now, watch the following video with more examples of sentences using the Past Simple and the Past Continuous together.