Language Focus 2: Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

Objectives

  •  Learn about how the past simple and past continuous are used together.
  •  Ask and answer questions about what I was doing yesterday at different times.

Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

We use the past simple to talk about completed events and actions in the past. We form regular past tense forms by adding -ed.

I played football yesterday.
I walked to school this morning.

We form the negative of the past simple with subject + didn’t + infinitive.

I didn’t go to the cinema.

We form past simple questions with did + subject + infinitive.

What did you do on holiday?

Some verbs are irregular in the past simple. They don’t follow any pattern.

Was and were are the past simple forms of be.

He was in town for two hours.

To form Yes/No questions, we use was/were before the subject. We don’t use do.

Was he happy?
Were the cat eating?

To form Wh-questions, we put the question word before was/were.

What film was it?
When were you at the park?

We use the past continuous to talk about actions in progress at a certain time in the past.

At lunch time, it was raining.

We form affirmative sentences with subject + was/were + verb + -ing.

He was crying.
We weren’t listening.

We form the negative with was/were + not (n’t) + verb + -ing. Not is usually contracted.

They weren’t helping to tidy.