Past simple and past continuous

Past simple or Past continuous

PAST TENSE SIMPLE

• formation: regular verb + ed OR irregular verb (past form)
  e.g.: I liked the lesson yesterday. OR I met my teacher yesterday.
• Use: actions in the past that are over and completed
• Signal words: yesterday, last week, last year, last..., in 1995, in July (last year), on Monday (last week), ago
• Negation: did not + base form OR was/were not
  e.g.: I didn´t help her yesterday. We were not at the party last week.
• Question: with did + base form OR was/were
  e.g.: Did you help her yesterday? Were you at the party last week?

PAST CONTINUOUS

• formation: was/were + verb + ing
  e.g.: The children were playing in the garden.
• Use: - actions in the past that took a long time

- two actions in the past that happened simultaneously

- a long action in the past that is interrupted by a short action. The long action is in past progressive and the short action is in past simple then.

• Signal words: when, while
  e.g.: Yesterday the children were playing in the garden while we were having tea. two long actions that happen simultaneously
  e.g.: I was washing the car when the phone rang.  one long action (past continuous) that is interrupted by a short action (past simple).
• Negation: was/were + not
  e.g.: The boys weren't playing football at five yesterday.
• Question: was/were
  e.g.: Were the boys playing football at five yesterday?