The simple past tense and the past continuous tense are so often confused ,so I think it's a good idea to revise them together and see how they differ.

In the simple past tense a specific time is used to show when an action began and finished but in the past continuous tense a specific time  only interrupts the action :

 -Last night at 8 PM ,I ate dinner. ( I started eating at 8 PM ).

 - Last night at 8 PM ,I was eating dinner ( I started earlier,and at 8 Pm ,I was in the process of eating dinner ).

             Usage:

We use the past continuous tense :

 1- To talk about  activities that continued for sometime in the past:

      - He was watching TV all evening.

      -They were playing football at 4 PM yesterday.

     - Yesterday at this time, I was reading a book.

   2-An activity was going on when another one took place :

  When or While are used in this case: ( while is always followed by a past continuous clause ):

 - While I was writing the email,the computer suddenly went off.

 -It started to rain while we were having a picnic.

 - I was watching TV when she called.

- He was sleeping last night when someone stole his car.

 - What were you doing when you broke your leg?

      Form:

 We form the past continuous with : was /were + -ing .

  Negatives and questions :

           -He wasn't paying attention to the lesson .

          - Were they sleeping when I called?

         -  What were you doing at 8 AM yesterday?

         -  Weren't you walking out when the acciedent happened?

 Important :

whenever you think of using the past continuous tense ,ask your self the question:"

Is it important to the sense that this activity went on continuously? Even this activity did go for along time in the past ,is this fact important to the sense??

   Exercise:

Change the infinitives in brackets to either the simple past or past continuous tenses :

   1- He   ( spend ) three years in London when he was a young man.

    2- While I ( learn) English I often ( confuse) the tenses.

    3- What (  be) you doing at eight o'clock yesterday evening?

    4- Our team ( win ) the championship last year.

    5-He ( study ) when the light went out.

   6- The doctor said that he ( be ) too sick to go out and that he ( need )  to stay home a couple of days.

   7- When the visitors ( come ) ,he ( read ) the newspaper.

   8- What were you doing when I ( call ) you yesterday morning?

   Thank you for reading

       -  Hala-