PAST SIMPLE AND PAST CONTINUOUS

Hi guys, welcome to our class, you know what? I was eating a sandwich before I stared this lesson
and in this morning I ate breakfast.

What’s the difference between these two sentences? Do we have the same tenses? No, these two
sentences talk about the past. but one is past continuous and the other is past simple.

So guys, her we have with us certain sentences that will help you how to talk about past tense
using these tenses. So, let’s look at the first sentence:

Example:

Yesterday Anna and Erick played tennis

Do you think it’s past continuous or past simple? Well because the main verb in the sentence has
an ‘’ed’’ that’s why this is past simple.

But what if this verb had ‘’ing’’ then it would be past continuous. But in this case it is past simple.
Right, let’s see another example:

They were playing tennis – as you can see here this is past continuous tense because we have the
‘’ing’’

Now let’s look at the next sentence that we have:

I WAVED TO SCARLETT- okay, so ‘waved’ is past simple because we have ‘’ed’’ form of the verb, we
are talking about one action in the past, I WAVED TO SCARLETT BUT SHE WASN’T LOOKING- So
this means that we are talking about something that is happening, she wasn’t looking all this
while, we are talking about the middle of that action. So this is past continuous: SHE WASN’T
LOOKING.

So we use ‘’was’’ with: he/she/it (third person singular)

And we use ‘’were’’ with: I/you/we/ they

That’s the reason we use, ‘’WANS’T LOOKNG’’

Now, let’s look at the next sentence that we have: MARCELA PHONED WHILE WE WERE HAVING
DINNER. So there is an action that is going on, which one is that? HAVING DINNER

So, they were eating dinner and the action was going on, but something happenend in the middle
of that action and what happened? MARCELA PHONED that means MARCELA CALLED… whenever
an action happens, in the middle of something else that when we use, past simple and also past
continuos together.
How to form a past simple:

Regular verbs: verb + ed, for example: I closed the door.

Irregular verbs: unique past simple form; for example: I bought a house last year

When to use a past simple:

For things that happened at a specific time in the past

How to form a past continuous:

Conjugate the verb ‘’to be’’ in it’s past tense. For the singular forms:

I was, you were, he was, she was, it was

For the plural form: we were, they were, for example: I WAS TALKING ON THE PHONE – WE WERE
COOKING DINNER.

We use the past tense of the verb to be so either was/were + the base form of the verb and ing

Was7were + verb + ing – I WAS WORKING LATE – he was watching television

When to use a past continuous:

- A temporary activity in the past. – I WAS WATCHING TV AT THAT MOMENT

- A TEMPORARY ACTIVITY IN THE PAST, INTERRUTED BY A SHORT ACTION- I was watching tv
when he called