The simple past is the normal tense for talking about finished events especially when we say when something happened. The simple past is not normally used to say that something happened at an indefinite point of time in the past. When the time is not mentioned, we normally use the present perfect to talk about finished events.

Compare:

I saw your brother yesterday. (We used the simple past here because we clearly mention the time of the action. Use the simple past with definite past time expressions like yesteday, last week, last year, in 2005 etc.)

I have seen your brother before. (Before is an indefinite time expression. It does not explain exactly when something happened. We do not use the simple past with indefinite time expressions. Instead we use the present perfect.)

In the simple past tense, we make questions and negatives with did.

• He failed the test. (Affirmative)
• He didn’t fail the test. (Negative) (NOT He didn’t failed the test.)
• Did he fail the test? (Interrogative)
• She arrived in the morning.
• She didn’t arrive in the morning.
• Did she arrive in the morning.

We use the simple past tense to talk about finished events in the past. It is commonly used with definite past time expressions like yesterday, last year, last week etc.

The past continuous tense is used to say that an action or situation was going on at a particular point of time in the past.

When we are talking about two past events, use the past continuous for the longer background action and the simple past for the short action that interrupts or happens in the middle of the longer action.

Study the example given below.

• I injured my foot while I was playing foorball yesterday.

Here we use the past continuous (was playing) to talk about the longer background action.

We used the simple past (injured) to talk about the short action that happened in the middle of the longer action.

• She slipped and fell while she was getting off the bus.
• The lights went out while I was doing my homework yesterday.

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the past simple or past continuous tense form of the verb.

1. Meera …………………….. (wait) for me when I ……………… (reach) home.

2. ‘What  …………………. (you / do) at this time yesterday?’ ‘I ………………….. (work) on my project.’

3. ‘……………….. (you / watch) the tennis match on TV last night?’ ‘No, I ……………….. (go) to bed early.’

4. ……………… (you / drive) fast when your car ……………… (hit) the motorist?

5. He always …………………. (take) my photos when I …………………. (not look)

6. I ……………….. (be) in a difficult situation. I ……………….. (not know) what I was supposed to do.

7. When I ……………….. (see) Rahul the other day he ………………. (tell) me that he …………………… (try) to find a job.

8. Yesterday when I ………………….. (walk) down the street, I ……………… (hear) footsteps behind me. I ……………… (realize) that somebody ………………… (follow) me. I was …………….. (scare) and I ……………… to run. (begin)

9. When I was young, I ……………….. to become a scientist. (want)

10. I ……………. (drop) a glass when I ………………. (serve) drinks to my guests. Fortunately, it ……………….. (not break)

Answers

1. was waiting, reached

2. were you doing, was working

3. Did you watch, went

4. Were you driving, hit

5. took, was not looking

6. was, did not know

7. saw, told, was trying

8. I was walking, heard, realized, was following, scared, began

9. was, wanted

10. dropped, was serving, did not break

Simple Past vs. Past Continuous Tense Exercise 2

Fill in the blanks with the past simple or past continuous tense form of the verb.

1. I …………………. (be) very tired when I ……………….. (get) home yesterday so I …………………….. (go) straight to bed.

2. I ……………………… (invite) all of my friends to my party but none of them ………………….. (turn) up.

3. At first I ……………………… (not like) him; later we ……………………….. (become) good friends.

4. He ………………………… (die) when he …………………….. (be) 95.

5. I ……………………… (have) several interesting experiences while I ………………………….. (stay) in Mumbai.

6. I was so tired I ……………………… (fall) asleep in the chair.

7. At that time I ………………………… as a teacher. (work)

8. While I ……………………. (cook) lunch my husband ………………………… (mop) the floor.

9. I ……………………… (turn) around but I …………………….. (not see) anybody.

10. I …………………….. (have) a shower when the phone …………………… (ring)

Answers

1. was, got, went, 2. invited, turned, 3. did not like, became, 4. died, was, 5. had, was staying, 6. fell, 7. was working, 8. cooked, mopped / was cooking, was mopping, 9. turned, did not see, 10. was having, rang