Use of Simple Past & Past Progressive

 

1) Use

Simple Past	Past Progressive
action finished in the past (single or repeated)	action was in progress at a special time in the past
series of completed actions in the past	two actions were happening at the same time (the actions do not influence each other)

2) Form

Simple Past	Past Progressive
regular verbs: infinitive + -ed irregular verbs: 2nd column of the table of the irregular verbs	(was or were) + verb + -ing

3) Examples

Simple Past	Past Progressive
3-1 Affirmative sentences
He played football.	He was playing football.
We played football.	We were playing football.
He sang songs.	He was singing songs.
We sang songs.	We were singing songs.

Simple Past	Past Progressive
3-2 Negative sentences
He did not play football.	He was not playing football.
We did not play football.	We were not playing football.
He did not sing songs.	He was not singing songs.
We did not sing songs.	We were not singing songs.

Simple Past	Past Progressive
3-3 Questions
Did he play football?	Was he playing football?
Did you play football?	Were you playing football?
Did he sing songs?	Was he singing songs?
Did you sing songs?	Were you singing songs?

4) Use

Both tenses are often used in one sentence:

While we were sitting at the breakfast table, the telephone rang.

We were sitting at the breakfast table when the telephone rang.

The signal word while is in the part with the Past Progressive,
the signal word when is in the part with the Simple Past.

ATTENTION!
Past Progressive: we were sitting at the table
Simple Past: the telephone rang.

The action in the Simple Past (pink) interrupts the action in the Past Progressive (blue).