Simple Past and Past Progressive 5 | English Exercises

The simple past and the past progressive are often used together in a sentence:

The past progressive describes an action that lasted for a longer and ongoing period in the past.

The simple past describes a shorter action that began during that time.

I was having a shower when the phone rang.

While they were driving to the beach, it started to rain.

We were waiting at the bus stop when we heard a strange noise.

In this sense, the past progressive is often used in stories and narratives to talk about the (ongoing) “background action”.

The sun was shining when the prince left the castle.

Note: We use the simple past (not the past progressive) when two actions in the past occur one after the other.

When Leila came home, we did our homework. (Leila came home, and then we did our homework.)

When Leila came home, we were doing our homework. (When Leila came home, we were in the middle of doing our homework.)