Past Simple and Past Continuous

The Basics: Simple Past :

There are two principal past tenses used to make general statements about the past: The past simple and the past continuous. The two tenses are quite different. Use the past simple to talk about an event which happened at some point in time in the past.

Tom flew to Chicago last week.
Peter visited his friends in Florida two months ago.
The Basics: Past Continuous:

The past continuous is usually used to refer to events happening at the same time that something important happened in the past.

They were doing their homework when she arrived.
Jack was studying while Dave was cooking dinner..

The past continuous is also used to express what was happening at a precise moment in the past.

I was attending a lecture at 2.30 yesterday afternoon.
Alice was reading a book at six yesterday evening.

Past Simple Structure:

Positive

Subject + Verb + ed OR Irregular Past Form + Objects

I, You, He, She, We, They -> played golf yesterday afternoon.
I, You, He, She, We, They -> went lunch at noon.

Negative

Subject + did not (didn't) + Verb + Objects

I, You, He, She, We, They -> didn't go on vacation last summer.

Subject + did not (doesn't) + Verb + Objects

Questions

(Why, What, etc.) + did + Subject + Verb + Objects?

Did -> I, you, we, they -> attend the meeting last week?

Past Continuous Structure:

Positive

Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + verb + -ing.

I was, You were, He was, She was, We were, You were, They were -> watching TV when I arrived.

Negative

Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + not + verb + -ing.

I wasn't, You weren't, He wasn't, She wasn't, We wasn't, You wasn't, They wasn't -> working when he came into the room.

Questions

Question word + conjugate the helping verb 'be' + subject + verb + -ing

What -> were you, they -> doing at seven o'clock?
What -> was I, he, she -> doing at seven o'clock?

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