Past Simple or Past Progressive
Difference between Past Simple or Past Progressive in the English grammar:
| past simple | past progressive |
|---|---|
| (1) If events are over and completed.; | (2) If at a certain point of time in the past an action just happened. ; |
| (3) If two or more actions happened at the same time (often connected with "while"); | |
| (4) When telling a story. Past Simple is the English narrative tense; | (5) If an action overlaps with another action. The "shorter event" (past simple) interrupts the "longer
event" (past progressive). Often, these structures are connected with "when". |
(1) Last Wednesday I went to the cinema.
(2) Outside it was getting dark.
(3) While I was walking home, I was thinking about the great food in France.
(4) I saw the French movie "Please kiss me". It is a movie about a man and a woman who met and spent a wonderful evening together. They told each other stories. In the end they briefly kissed before leaving and never saw each other again.
(5) I was eating dinner when the phone rang.
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