Past Simple (I waited) or Past Continuous (I was waiting)

B1-B1+
Grammar
Verbs and tenses

Compare the Past Simple and Past Continuous:

Past Simple (Positive & Negative)
I/you/he/she/it/we/they	worked.
	didn’t work.

Past Simple (Questions)
Did	I/you/he/she/it/we/they	work?

Past Continuous (Positive & Negative)
I/he/she/it	was/wasn’t	working.
You/we/they	were/weren’t	working.

Past Continuous (Questions)
Was	I/he/she/it	working?
Were	you/we/they	working?

Past Simple
We use the Past Simple to talk about a complete event in the past: Last Saturday morning, I went* to the supermarket.*

Here are some more examples: On Sunday I made* lasagne.* It snowed* a lot at the weekend.*

Past Continuous
We use the Past Continuous to talk about an action that was in progress, when something else happened: Last Saturday morning, I was going* to the supermarket when I met my friend John.*

Here are some more examples: The phone rang while I was making* lasagne.* It was snowing* when we left home.*

Past Simple
We often use the Past Simple to talk about one event that followed another event: When Paula left* university, she went to work for a large bank. She left the bank after five years, and got a job in a finance company …*

Past Continuous
In a story we often use the Past Continuous to say what was in progress when something happened: The sun was shining. People were sitting* under the trees or walking around the park. Suddenly, a police car drove into the park …*

PRACTICE

Now it is time to practise what you have learned.

For each Practice Test, read the instructions carefully.
Complete the exercise and press 'Check' to get your results.

Practice Test A

Practice Test B

Practice Test C

Nigel Bailey

Nigel is a qualified Teacher of English as a Foreign Language and has been teaching in Poland since 2003. He has been teaching over the Internet since 2008 and has taught more than 1,000 students in this way.

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The past: narrative tenses, used to and would

Narrative tenses are verb tenses that are used to talk about the past. They are often found in stories and

Since, for, ago; first, last

We use since to talk about an action from some indicated time in the past, up to the present time.

Had to go, should have gone

We use had to to express an obligation or necessity that existed in the past. We use should have to

Necessity: need, needn’t, needn’t have

We can use both needn’t and don’t need to to give permission to someone not to do something in the

Can, could, be able to, may, will, shall

We use can or be able to for saying that somebody or something has the ability to do something. We

Past Perfect (I had eaten)

We often use the past perfect when two things in a sentence happened in the past, and we need to

Past Simple (I waited) or Past Continuous (I was waiting)

PRACTICE

Nigel Bailey

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