Simple Past vs Past Continuous de pam00077

PAST PROGRESSIVE AND PAST SIMPLE

1.  The most common use of the past continuous tense is to talk about something that was happening around a particular time in the past.

• What were you doing at 8 o’clock last night? I was watching television.

I started watching television before 8 o’clock and I continued watching it after 8 o’clock.

• In 1994 he was working in a small town in Poland.
• At 6 o’clock on Saturday morning we were travelling to the airport.

2. We often use the past continuous and the past simple tense 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 the important difference 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.

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ENGLISH EXAM

Dear Students:


Next week, on  March 2nd.(thursday) and 3rd. (friday),  you are going to take an English exam. This quiz will have all the grammar topics that we studied in the class.

On the other hand, you have to prepare a short oral presentation about the Aztec Mask.

Please be responsible, you have some days to study. You must read and do grammar practices using my blog. In it, you can find all the grammar topics, exercises and explanations.

Here are all the grammar points that you have to study:

Simple Present, affirmative, negative and question forms.
Simple Present as a Future (timetables and schedules)
Present Progressive and Simple Present (Stative and Action Verbs)
Simple Past tense

Also, the quiz will have reading comprehension and writing practice.


Regards,

Teacher Jenny