Past Continuous and Simple

Past Continuous or Simple

A.      The past continuous

Look at this question  and answer:

Alice              : I rang yesterday, but you weren’t in. were you playing tennis?

Dave              : No, I was helping Bob. We were working on his car. I wasn’t playing yesterday.

The past continuous is the past tense of be + the ing-form:

I/He/She/It was working                                      you/we/they were working

I/He/She/It wasn’t working                                 you/we/they weren’t working

Was He/She/It working?                                     Were you/we/they working?

We use the past continuous to say that we were in the middle of an action.

B.      Continuous or simple?

Look at this paragraph:

It was a lovely day, and the sun was shining. I was walking across the field when I saw a plane. It was flying very low. It was making a strange noise, and I knew there was a problem. It came down in the next field, and I heard a crash. I ran to the village and phoned for help.

Compare:

PAST CONTINUOUS We use the past continuous to say that we were  in the middle of an action: I was walking across the field. (I was in the field.) The plane was flying very low.

PAST SIMPLE We use the past simple for a complete action in the past: I walked across the field. (I crossed it completely.) The plane crashed in a field.

We often use the past continuous to describe the background and the past simple for the actions in a story:

        The sun was shining . . . I ran to the village.

        The crowds were waiting . . . The Princess arrived.

Verbs of thinking and feeling and state verbs are usually simple, not continuous.

I thought everything was OK.                             We liked the film.

I knew there was a problem.                              Mr. Young once owned the field.

We often use the past   continuous and simple together when a shorter action interrupted a longer one (came in the middle of it):

I fell asleep while I was watching TV.

We were sitting in the garden when it suddenly started to rain.

The phone rang while Gary was making lunch.

Longer action:           . . . Gary was making lunch . . .

Shorter action:          . . . The phone rang . . .

We use two past simple verbs for one action after another:

        When I heard the crash, I ran to the village. (=I heard it and then I ran.)

SIMPLE PAST

(a)    I walked to school yesterday (b)   He lived in Paris for ten years, but now he is living in Rome. (c)    I bought a new car three days ago.	The simple past indicates that an activity or situation began and ended at a particular time in the past.
(d)   I stood under the tree when it began to rain. (e)   When she heard a strange noise, she got up to investigate. (f)     When I dropped my cup, the coffee spilled on my lap.	If a sentence contain when and has the simple past in both clauses, the actions in the “when clause” happens first. In (d): 1st: the rain began. 2nd: I stood under a tree.

PAST PROGRESSIVE

(g)    I was walking down the street when it began to rain. (h)   While I was walking down the street, it began to rain. (i)      I was standing under a tree when it began to rain. (j)     At eight o’clock last night, I was studying. (k)    Last year at this time, I was attending school.	In (g): 1st: I was walking down the street. 2nd: it began to rain. In other words, both actions occurred at the same time, but one action began earlier and was in progress when the other action occurred. In (j): my studying began before 8.00, was in progress at that time, and probably continued.
(l)      While I was studying in one room of our apartment, my roommate was having a party in the other room.	Sometimes the past progressive is used in both parts of a sentence when two actions are in progress simultaneously.
(m) It rained this morning. (n)   It was raining this morning.	In some cases, the simple past and the past progressive give almost the same meaning, as in (m) and (n).