This blog has been designed to provide information about the activities held at the social studies bilingual sections in CPI Tino Grandío (Guntín,Spain). The English language and Social Studies teachers have elaborated most of the resources you can see but our "auxiliares de conversa" also have their own page and posts. Therefore everyone is invited to have a look .

Monday, November 16, 2015

Past simple & past continuous

Past simple is often used for past events in a past time. Most stories are told using this tense and it is often used together with past continuous.

Past continuous or past progressive is one of the tenses we are going to study this year.

The following chart summarises the most important aspects you'll have to learn about both of them:


USES:
  • Past simple is used to tell about past event or stories:
    • We went to Ireland and there we met your sister.
    • My parents spent a weekend in Coruña but they didn't go to the port.
    • When did they release the film? Last Friday?
  • Past continuous is often used to talk about what was happening at a specific time in the past (talking about memories...)
    • We were watching the film at lunch time.
  • Two past continuous tenses can be used to talk about long, simultaneous actions in the past:
    • We were studying while the dogs were barking in the yard.
  • Both tenses are used to talk about something that happened at one point (in the past simple) while a longer action was taking place (in the past continuous). In this use, the clause referring to the longer action, is often introduced by while or as; or, alternatively, the shorter action clauses is introduced by when:
    • We weren't watching the film when my sister rang.
    • They found the lost key as they were having a walk along the river.
    • Myrtle broke here leg while she was exercising in the park.

EXERCISES:

past simple
past continuous
contrast:

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