Past Simple / Past Continuous

The Past Simple Tense of the most English verbs (regular verbs) is formed by adding "-ed"/"-d"; to their base form. (If the verb ends in "-e", we add "-d" to form the past simple.)

There are also some verbs called irregular verbs that have special past tense forms. (See list of irregular verbs)

We use the Past Simple Tense:

· to describe actions and situations that happened in the past. These actions and situations were started and finished in the past.

Example: Susan bought her little sister a doll.

· The sentence often contains an adverb or adverb phrase of time, such as yesterday, the other day,last night, last week, three days ago, a few minutes ago, in (year), from (year) to (year), etc.

Example: My brother lived in London for six years.

· to talk about habitual or repeated actions that took place in the past

Example: When she was young, she danced beautifully.
Note: This use is also often expressed with used to: Bob used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day.

· to tell a story and to express actions which follow each other in a story

Example: It happened one night in the winter.

· to refer to the historical past or to events that have happened in the distant past relative to the speaker

Example: Romans built strong bridges.

· for reporting what someone said (converting from direct to reported speech)

Example: David said that he was tired.

· to talk about action in the past that take place in the middle of another action

Example: I was having a bath when the phone rang.

· for making second conditional sentences (also called conditional type 2) when we talk about an imaginary or unlikely situation and to describe its result. (If + past simple, would + infinitive)

Example: If I won the lottery, I would travel the world.

The Past Continuous is made with the Past form of the verb "to be"; (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, you were, they were) + the '-ing' form of the main verb. The '-ing' form of the verb is called the Present Participle.

We use the Past Continuous Tense:

· to say that someone was at the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation has already started before this time but hadn't finished yet:

Example: What were they doing at 10 o'clock? They were working at the garden.

· The Past Continuous is also used together with the Past Simple to say that somehing happens at the middle of something else:

Example: David was reading a book in the park when suddenly it began to rain.

· to indicate that two actions in the past were in the progress simultaneously (with while):

Example: While I was studying in one room my older sister was having a party in the other room.

· to express action that were in progress at the time of another particular time:
Example: It was snowing all morning.

· to talk about irritating repeated actions in the past (with always, constantly):
Example: My girlfriend was always coming late.

· to make polite inquiries:

Example: I was wondering if you could lend me your new car for a few hours.
Remember that we do not normally use the Past Continuous with no action verbs like seem, know, feel, hear, smell, taste, hate, hope, mean, prefer, love, like, etc.

 

Exercise 1.Put the verbs in brackets into the right form:

 

Exercise 2.Translate into English:

Exercise 3.Match two parts of the sentence and join them with when or while: