Past Simple Tense vs.

Past Continuous Tense

 Sample sentences
• Roderick Smith went to university in 1983, where
he studied economics. He graduated in 1987
and joined Arthur Anderson. He qualified as a
Chartered Accountant in 1990, and worked for
the company for three years.

• The early 1970s was a time when IBM was

beginning to lose its way and many skilled
people were leaving to set up their own
businesses. Computing was entering a new age.
 Grammar structure
• Here are some reminders about how to
make the past simple and past
continuous:
 PAST SIMPLE
B. Form
• The Past Simple is formed by using the past tense
form. Regular verbs add–d or –ed to the bare
infinitive to form the past tense.
e.g. decide - decided
work - worked

Some verbs, however, have irregular forms for the

past simple and must therefore be learnt.
e.g. bring – brought
see – saw
 PAST SIMPLE

Spelling rules

decide - carry - carried plan - planned travel -

decided
try – tried stop - stopped travelled
retire – retired cancel -
BUT admit -
attempt - admitted cancelled
obey - obeyed
attempted
refer - referred
play - played
visit – visited
• break – broke
• speak – spoke
• choose – chose
• drive – drove • cut – cut •know – knew
• write - wrote • put - put •draw – drew
• cost – cost •fly – flew
• drink – drank • let – let
• begin – began •catch – caught
• sing – sang • sleep – slept •teach – taught
• swim - swam • keep – kept
• weep – wept •sell – sold
• think – thought • meet - met •tell - told
• bring – brought
• fight – fought
 Past Simple (Negative)

For all verbs (EXCEPT be), use:

the infinitive
didn’t + form of THE
MAIN VERB

I/you/he/she/it/we/they did not (didn’t) work.

 PAST SIMPLE

• Questions are formed with the auxiliary

verb did and the infinitive. Short answers
to yes/no questions repeat the auxiliary.

A: Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they work?

B: Yes, I/you/etc. did./No, I/you/etc.
didn’t.
 PAST SIMPLE

The verb TO BE follows a different pattern:

• I/he/she/it was/was not (wasn’t) …
• We/you/they were/were not (weren’t) …
• Was I/he/she/it …? (Yes, I/he/she/it was./
No, I/he/she/it wasn’t.)
• Were we/you/they …? (Yes, we/you/they
were./ No, we/you/they weren’t.)
 PAST SIMPLE
COMMON MISTAKES:
A common mistake is to use the past tense form in
negatives and in questions. We use the auxiliary did
and bare infinitive.

WRONG: Did you checked the figures?

RIGHT: Did you check the figures?

WRONG: No, I didn’t checked them.

RIGHT: No, I didn’t check them.
 Past Continuous
• Don’t forget that verb BE (WAS/WERE) is
a part of this structure:

I, He, She, It WAS

We, You, They WERE + verb
-ING

He was working on the report all day long.

 Past Continuous (Negative)
• For this tense simply add the word NOT after
WAS/WERE.

1. She was interviewing candidates for the sales

job.
• She was NOT interviewing candidates for the
sales job.
2. They were working at home for a few days.
• They were NOT working at home for a few days.
Remember –ing spelling rules?
Verb ending in... How to make the -ING form Examples

say - saying
(Most verbs) Add -ING go - going
walk - walking

swim - swimming
1 short vowel Double the consonant, then add -ING hit - hitting
get - getting

come - coming
lose - losing
1 vowel + 1 consonant + E Remove E, then add –ING live – living

die – dying
Final –ie Change –ie to y, then add -ING tie -- tying
Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

When do we use
each tense?
We use the past simple to talk
about:
1) completed actions that
happened in the past
2) a definite moment or period
in the past
3) describing something, e.g.
the history of a company
4) in reports, e.g. a company’s
annual report
We use the past continuous
to …:
1) exphasise the duration or
continuity of a past event
2) talk about action or activity
that was in progress at a
particular moment of time in
the past
3) express two (several)
activities in progress,
happening at the same time
4) talk about an action or
activity that was already in
progress (a background
event), which was interrupted
by another action
 PAST SIMPLE
1) completed actions that happened in the
past
• Alexander Graham Bell invented the .
• James Sainsbury set up a dairy in 1869.
The business expanded and diversified,
and eventually became the largest chain
of supermarkets in Britain.

We know when the action happened, and this may be

mentioned or clear from the situation.
 PAST SIMPLE

2) a definite moment or period in the past

• I checked the figures very carefully last week.

• Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980.
• The standard of living in Europe went up
during the 1960s.
• Did you discuss the problem at last week’s
meeting?
 PAST SIMPLE

As in the previous examples, the simple past is

often used with expressions that refer to points of
time in the past.
Typical past markers include:

at 6 o’clock/1.15/the end of the year/Christmas

Friday/15th May/the 21st/New Year’s Day
on
January/2003/the 1990s/summer
in
yesterday/yesterday morning/last Monday/a
no few days ago/the day before yesterday/when
preposition I was young
 PAST SIMPLE
3) describing something, e.g. the history of a company

When George Eastman introduced

the first Kodak camera in 1888, he
wanted to supply the tools of
photography at the lowest possible
price to the greatest number of
people. The rapid growth of his
business made large-scale
production a necessity. The creation
of ingenious tools and processes for
manufacturing film enabled the
Eastman company to turn out high-
quality merchandise at prices that put
them within the reach of the general
public.
 PAST SIMPLE
4) in reports, e.g. a company’s annual report
• Last year was a tough year for our group. On the
one hand, we earned more than a billion dollars
and generated record cash flow. On the other
hand, our total earnings declined and our
overseas production facilities underperformed.

5) to ask when an activity happened

• When did they establish the company?
• When did she complete the report?
 Past Continuous
1) to exphasise the duration or
continuity of a past event

• He was working on the report all day

long.
• During the 1990s computer scientists
were trying to deal with the millennium
bug.
 Past Continuous
2) to talk about action or activity that was in
progress at a particular moment of time
in the past

• At 3.15 yesterday afternoon, I was

seeing some clients in London.
what were you doing?

at 3.15 yesterday afternoon

 Past Continuous
3) to express two (several) activities in
progress, happening at the same time

• While we were discussing cost-cutting

measures, the GM was presenting the
poor results. discussion of cost-cutting measures

presentation of poor results

• Sorry, I wasn’t listening to you while you were talking.

 Past Continuous
4) to talk about an action or activity that was already
in progress (a background event), which was
interrupted by another action. The second, shorter
event, is in the past simple.
• Use past continuous to
say what was in
progress
I was crossing the street …
• Use simple past for the
interrupting action
when the driver ran the red
light.
•They were talking about safety procedures
when the fire alarm went off.
•We were discussing our expansion plans
when the chairman suddenly announced his
resignation.
•He was driving too fast when he crashed
the car.
 Past Continuous
We can re-phrase the previous sentence using while
+ the past continuous
While we were discussing our expansion plans, the
chairman suddenly announced his resignation.
The activity may or may not continue after the
interruption:
Paul was doing some filing when his boss asked
him to fetch an invoice.
(Paul fetched the invoice and then probably carried
on with the filing.)
Paul was doing some filing when the fire broke out.
(Paul probably stopped doing the filing at this point.)
 PAST CONTINUOUS
• The past continuous tense does not
necessarily mean that an activity lasted
for a long time:
• I was working for ABC for 10 years.
(WRONG)
• I worked for ABC for 10 years.
(CORRECT)
• I was working for ABC when the merger
took place. (CORRECT)
 Past Continuous (more examples)
5) making polite requests
• I was wandering if you could give me a lift downtown.
There is no idea of past time here. The past verb form is a
polite formula and makes the request less direct.

6) for events planned in the past which did not take

place
• I was planning to visit the exhibition but I went to the
football match instead.
• She was going to phone them yesterday but didn’t have
the time.
 PAST SIMPLE OR CONTINUOUS?
1. The past continuous tense does not tell us whether an
action was finished or not. Perhaps it was finished,
perhaps not:
• She was typing some letters. ( = She was in the middle
of typing and we don't know whether she finished typing
the letters or not.)
• He was writing the report. ( = He was in the middle of
writing and we don't know whether he finished writing
the report or not.)

The past simple tells us that the action was finished:

• She typed the letters. ( = She began and finished typing
them.)
• He wrote the report. ( = He began and finished writing
it.)
2. We use the past continuous and the past simple
together to say that something happened in the
middle of something else:

• I was sleeping when the phone rang and woke me

up.

But, to say that one thing happened soon after another,

we use the past simple:
• I was sleeping when the phone rang and woke me
up. I went to the hall and answered the phone.
Compare these two sentences:

• When Tom arrived, we were discussing the

proposal. ( = We had already started discussing
the proposal when Tom arrived.)

• When Tom arrived, we discussed the proposal.

( = Tom arrived and then we discussed the
proposal.)
 Important firsts. What made these people
famous?

1 The Wright brothers invent the first flight in

1903.
2 Neil Armstrong discover
radium in 1902.
3 Pierre and Marie make
Curie the first commercial
patent sewing machine in
4 Gutenberg 1851.
land
5 Isaac Singer the printing press in
1450.
on the surface of the
moon in 1969.
Complete the following passage by putting the verbs into
the past tense.
After the Second World War, Their first task (be) ______
was to
Akio Morita, the co-founder
of Sony, (join) ______
joined forces decide what to make. They
with a friend, Masaru Ibuka. (not want) ____________
did not want
Both men (know) ______knew a
great deal about to make radios because of the
telecommunications, so (use) competition from much larger
______
used all their money, about
companies. Instead, they
₤100, and (set up) ______
set up a
small engineering company, (decide) decided
______ to create an
Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. They entirely new product, a tape
(find) ______
found a small broken recorder. They (succeed)
down building to use as a ______ in making a machine,
succeeded
laboratory in Tokyo. There
(be) ______
were so many holes in
but unfortunately they (not
the roof that when it (rain) have)
did not______any
have tape, and
______,
rained they (have) ______had they (not know)
did not______
know how
to continue working under to produce it.
umbrellas.
So they (start) ________
started to
experiment, and (try) ______
tried
using a number of different
materials. Finally, they (make)
______
made a breakthrough. They
(cut) ______
cut up strings of paper
to make a reel, and (paint)
______
painted them with a magnetic
material that they (heat) ______
heated
on a frying pan in their small
room. It (work) ______,
worked and they
gradually (improve) ______ the
improved
process. In 1950, they (begin)
______
began trying to sell their
revolutionary machine.
And the rest is history!
 The reasons why: Use the words in the box to give explanations for
the following events.

funds plummet
the president run out
their value complain
customers speak

their value was plummeting

1 He sold his shares quickly because _______________________.
2 We scrapped the project because _________________________.
funds were running out
3 We were forced to withdraw the model because
_________________.
customers were complaining
4 He didn’t wish to interrupt because _______________________.
the president was speaking
Complete each sentence in two ways. In A, use the
past continuous to say what was happening at the
time. In B, use the simple past to say what happened
next.

1 When I got to the airport,…

A the company driver was waiting for me.
B I went straight to the meeting.
2 When the accident happened, …
3 When you lost some money, …
4 When you had to go to hospital, …
5 When you were stopped by the police, …