Remember that there are some verbs that cannot be used in progressive forms!

It is your turn now!

Pay attention to the highlighted verbs

The PASTin the text andTENSE
SIMPLE continue theusfollowing
tells story:that started and ended in a closed period of time
about actions
(yesterday, last night, two years ago, when I was young, in 1999, etc):
We saw your boyfriend last night.
They lived in Berlin ten years ago.
Mary didn’t phone yesterday.
The PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE makes time slow down: it takes a moment and stretches it to make it
“last longer” and allow us to observe it in detail.
Tom was swimming when he fainted.
The children were watching TV when the bell rang.
As you can see, the simple past tense expresses the main actions in an active manner. The past continuous tense
acts as a slow background in which the past tense is the star, the main actor.

Everybody was sleeping when the plane crashed in the garden.

secondary fact, reference main action

Notice a very important difference: If someone says…

1. When I was looking at the sky … → you expect some
information, you want to know what happened!
2. I saw an eagle chasing a sparrow. → that’s enough
information, nothing else is needed.

Let me tell you a very old story, something that happened to

Let me tell you a very old story, something that happened to
me a long long time ago, when I was a child…
me a long long time ago, when I was a child…

I was only five years old, back in 1901. I was spending the summer
on the beach with my family. We were in Spain that summer and the weather
was beautiful: it was always warm and sunny. The small village was crowded,
and you could find people everywhere, in the streets, in the bars and
restaurants, day and night.
One morning we all went to the beach. It was a beautiful morning:
the sun was shining, the birds were singing in the trees, a slight breeze was
blowing. Lots of people were swimming in the sea, and many children were
playing with the sand and making castles. Suddenly, the strangest thing
happened! A loud scream came from the distance. Everyone stood still,
nobody moved. What was happening?!
A shark was swimming near the beach! Everybody left the water
and gathered next to their loved ones. I ran near my parents and held their
hands tightly. I closed my eyes. I was so scared! I’ll never forget that day…
 Let me tell you the most frightening story I have ever lived!
One Saturday evening my parents went out with some friends. My brother and I stayed alone at home. It was a cold winter
night. It was raining heavily, the wind was blowing, the house was so quiet…

Little Bobby and I were watching TV in the living room. We were eating popcorn and drinking some soda.