Past Simple and Past Continuous Tenses – Key Differences

The Past Simple and Past Continuous tenses allow us to report events from the past. They have different uses in English – we use the Past Simple when talking about completed actions, and the Past Continuous when the situations we’re talking about lasted for some time in the past. In some situations, both tenses can appear together.

Past Simple, Past Continuous – Differences

The main difference between the Past Simple and Past Continuous is that the Past Simple talks about an action that started and finished in the past.

The Past Continuous, on the other hand, is used when talking about an action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past – emphasizing the duration, not whether the action was completed.

When is the Past Simple used?

We use the Past Simple tense when:

• We talk about an action that finished at a specific time in the past.
• We tell a story about events that took place in the past.
• We talk about facts and states from the past (without necessarily stating the time).
• We ask about the time or date of an action that took place in the past.
• We talk about habits and customs from the past.

Example Sentences

• I bought a new car two days ago.
• After I sent the email, I left the office and I picked up pizza for dinner.
• Christopher Columbus discovered America.
• What time did you go to sleep?
• Tomek played tennis every Saturday when he was a student.
• We went to the cinema yesterday.
• What did you do the day before yesterday?

Do you want to learn more about the Past Simple tense? Read the article >>>

When is the Past Continuous used?

We use the Past Continuous tense when:

• We talk about a continuous action – often specifying how long it lasted.
• We describe situations (or ask about them) that were happening at a specific time in the past.
• We talk about situations that were happening at the same time.
• We describe a ‘background’ situation, the scenery of some past event.
• A long action in the past was interrupted by a second, short action.
• We describe an irritating action that repeated in the past.

Example Sentences

• The children were playing in the garden all day yesterday.
• I was reading the paper while my wife was watching TV.
• The sun was shining when we left the house.
• Ania called me when I was cleaning the house.
• Tomek was always talking about how handsome he is.
• What were you doing at the hospital last week?
• Tomek was sleeping when she arrived.
• They were listening to the radio all evening.

Do you want to learn more about the Past Continuous tense? Read the article >>>

Comparison of the structure of the Past Simple and Past Continuous tenses

Structure of the affirmative sentence

Past Simple

The structure of a sentence in the Past Simple can be expressed with the formula:

Subject + verb in the past form + rest of the sentence

• For regular verbs, we add the ending -ed (or -d if the verb ends in -e). If the verb ends in -y after a consonant, we change -y to -i and then add -ed, e.g., try – tried.
• Monosyllabic and disyllabic verbs where the accent falls on the last syllable, and their last 3 letters are a sequence of “consonant – vowel – consonant,” double the last letter (except for the letters “w” and “x“), e.g., stop – stopped.
• For irregular verbs, unfortunately, we have to learn them by heart. Do you want to learn more about irregular verbs? Read the article >>>

Past Continuous

The structure of a sentence in the Past Continuous can be expressed with the formula:

Subject + was / were + verb -ing + rest of the sentence

We generally use the verb was for the first and third person singular. We use the verb were for the second person singular and all plural forms.

Time expressions (such as last Saturday) are used at the beginning or end of the sentence:

• He was studying last Saturday.
• Last Saturday, he was studying.