English — The Past Continuous vs Past Simple: When to Use Each — 2nd Year Middle School — Algerian Curriculum

Past Continuous vs Past Simple

Past Continuous

Used for actions in progress at a specific time in the past.

Structure: was/were + verb-ing.

• I was studying at 8 pm yesterday.
• They were playing football when it started raining.

Past Simple

Used for completed actions in the past.

• I studied for 2 hours.
• They played football yesterday.

Combined use

Past continuous (long action) + Past simple (short action that interrupts).

🔹 I was watching TV when the phone rang.
🔹 While she was cooking, she cut her finger.

Exercises

1. Fill in: (I ___ (read) when he ___ (arrive). While they ___ (play), it ___ (start) to rain.)
2. Write 2 sentences combining both tenses.

دروس مشابهة:

• اللغة الإنجليزية — Defining and Non-defining Relative Clauses — 2ثان
• اللغة الإنجليزية — Prepositions of Movement: To, Into, Onto, Through
• اللغة الإنجليزية — The Future: Will vs Going to — 1ثانوي — شعبة آدا