Practice! - Past Tenses

Mixing the tenses! - Past simple and Past continuous

We often use the past continuous and the past simple tenses together. When this happens, the past continuous describes a longer, ‘background’ action or situation and the past simple describes the action or events.

• When I woke up this morning it was raining and my father was singing in the kitchen.
• I was walking home, whistling happily, when I saw two masked men run out of the bank.

Often, the ‘action’ described by the past simple tense interrupts the ‘situation’ described by the past continuous tense.

• I broke my leg when I was skiing.
• I was playing a computer game when the doorbell rang.

Notice that the past continuous describes ‘situations’ that go on for some time – ‘skiing’ and ‘playing’ but the past simple describes ‘actions’ that happen quickly – ‘broke’ and ‘rang’.

Notice too important differences between these two sentences:

• When they arrived, Jeff was cooking dinner. ➔ Jeff started cooking before they arrived.
• When they arrived, Jeff cooked dinner. ➔ Jeff started cooking dinner after they arrived.

Time expressions - Past Simple and Continuous

Use the Past Simple with:

• Ago: I saw that film two weeks ago.
• Last: Last month, I was on holiday.
• When: When did you see him? I saw him when I was in London.
• Then: I finished my work, then I drove home.

Use the Past Continuous with:

• While: I lost my wallet while I was walking home.
• When: I was having a shower when the phone rang.
• During: During the summer, I was working on a farm.

Past Simple vs Past continuous

Did you do it or were you doing it?

• PAST SIMPLE: A completed action in the past.

Structure of the sentence: Subject + verb (+ed) + the rest of the sentence.

Negative sentence: Subject + didn't  + verb in the infinitive form + the rest of the sentence.

Yes/No question: Did + subject + verb in the infinitive form + the rest of the sentence.

• PAST CONTINUOUS: An action that was taking place at some point in the past.

Structure of the sentence: Subject + verb to be in the past (was/were) + main verb with -ing + the rest of the sentence.

Negative sentence: subject + wasn't or weren't + main verb with -ing + the rest of the sentence.

Yes/No question: was/were + subject + main verb with -ing + rest of the sentence.