The simple past tense describes actions that started and finished at a specific point in the past. If you can ask “when?” and get a clear answer, you’ll likely use the simple past. Think of words like yesterday, last week, or in 2019—these are signals for this tense.

For most verbs, you form the simple past by adding -ed. These are called regular verbs.

Many common verbs are irregular, meaning they don't follow the -ed rule. You just have to learn their unique past tense forms.

For example:

• go → went
• see → saw
• eat → ate

To form questions or negative statements in the simple past, we use the auxiliary verb did. When did is present, the main verb reverts to its base form. This is a common point of confusion.

The past continuous tense describes an action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past. It sets the scene, telling us what was happening over a period of time. The action had already started before that moment and likely continued after it.

This tense emphasizes the duration of an activity. It doesn't focus on the completion of the action, but on the fact that it was happening.

The simple past and past continuous tenses often work together in the same sentence. The past continuous describes a longer, background action that was in progress, and the simple past describes a shorter, completed action that interrupted it.

Think of the past continuous as the setting and the simple past as the main event.

In the example above,

The action of reading was in progress over a period of time. The phone ringing was a single, completed event that happened during that time.

A common mistake is using the simple past for two actions that happened at the same time. If two actions were in progress simultaneously, use the past continuous for both.

Now let's review these concepts.

Time to check your understanding.

Mastering these two tenses provides the foundation for telling clear and engaging stories about the past.