https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.
org/beginner-grammar/past-continuous-and-past-simple
Past Continuous and Past Simple
1. The most common use of the past continuous tense is to talk about something that was
happening around a particular time in the past.
What were you doing at 8 o’clock last night? I was watching television.
I started watching television before 8 o’clock and I continued watching it after 8 o’clock.
In 1994 he was working in a small town in Poland.
At 6 o’clock on Saturday morning we were travelling to the airport.
2. We often use the past continuous and the past simple tense together. When this happens,
the past continuous describes a longer, ‘background’ action or situation and the past simple
describes the action or events.
When I woke up this morning it was raining and my father was singing in the kitchen.
I was walking home, whistling happily, when I saw two masked men run out of the bank.
Often, the ‘action’ described by the past simple tense interrupts the ‘situation’ described by the past
continuous tense.
I broke my leg when I was skiing.
I was playing a computer game when the doorbell rang.
Notice that the past continuous describes ‘situations’ that go on for some time – ‘skiing’ and ‘playing’
but the past simple describes ‘actions’ that happen quickly – ‘broke’ and ‘rang’.
Notice too the important difference between these two sentences.
When they arrived, Jeff was cooking dinner. Jeff started cooking before they arrived.
When they arrived, Jeff cooked dinner. Jeff started cooking dinner after they arrived.
I. Complete the sentences with an appropriate form of the verb in brackets.
1) You (work) _______________ as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I (meet) ______________
you.
2) When I (walk) _______________ into the room it was chaos! The dog (run)
_______________ around the room and the children (write) _______________ on the walls.
3) Excuse me sir. Can you tell us what you (do) _______________ at 11 o’clock last night?
4) As soon as I (see) _______________ the accident I (call) _______________ the police.
5) The day I (hear) _______________ the news I (study) _______________ for my exams.
II. Put the verbs in brackets into the past simple.
Romeo 0) (be) was in love with Rosaline but one day at a party he 1) (meet) _______________
Juliet. He immediately 2) (fall) _______________ in love with her and 3) (forget)
_______________ all about Rosaline. Unfortunately, Romeo’s family 4) (be) _______________
enemies of Juliet’s family. Her family 5) (want) _______________ her to marry someone else.
To cut a long story short, Romeo 6) (kill) _______________ himself because he 7) (think)
_______________ that Juliet 8) (be) _______________ dead. Then, Juliet 9) (wake)
_______________ up and 10) (find) _______________ Romeo’s body. So she 11) (take)
_______________ Romeo’s sword and 12) (kill) _______________ herself, too.
III. Read the text in exercise II again and write questions for the following answers.
Example: Who was Romeo in love with? Rosaline.
1) Where ______________________________________________?
At a party.
2) Who ________________________________________________ about?
Rosaline.
3) Who ________________________________________________ marry?
Someone else.
4) Who ________________________________________________?
Himself.
5) Why ________________________________________________?
Because he thought Juliet was dead.
6) What ________________________________________________ when she woke up?
She killed herself, too.
7) How ________________________________________________?
With Romeo’s sword.
IV. Rearrange the words to make questions.
1) best did friend meet when you your ?
2) class in is person tallest the who your ?
3) country in is like the weather what you ?
4) day do emails every get how many you ?
5) does teacher like look what your ?
6) wearing were what yesterday you ?
V. Each of the sentences below has one word missing. Insert the missing words.
Example: What names you like for a boy? What names do you like for a boy?
1) He drinks far much beer.
2) How your parents choose your name?
3) It raining when I arrived at work.
4) There were lot of people at the disco.
5) What the shops like in your home town?
VI. Rewrite the sentences beginning with the words given.
1) What’s your weight?
How much __________________________________________
2) There were only a few people at the party.
There were not ______________________________________
3) I didn’t get much sleep last night.
I didn’t get a ________________________________________
4) She has known him for two years.
She met ___________________________________________
5) What clothes did you have on yesterday?
What were _________________________________________
