Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

This week we are working on the past simple and present progressive sentence structures.  What happens when an action is interrupted in the past? Read the description below and try the exercises for more practice.  Good luck!

Remember- the simple past talks about something that happened before. It happened and it finished. Some words are regular and just have -ed added at the end like walked, helped, and played. Others are irregular and have many variations like ate (to eat), began (to begin), and slept (to sleep).

The past progressive (past continuous) talks about something that was happening before, but for a period of time. It uses was or were + verb-ing like was eating or were playing. It gives a background for something that was happening while a different event happened.

Example: While I was eating, the telephone rang.

Warm-up

A variety of activities

A bit more difficult

Quiz Time!