Page 31 - Grasp English B1+ (Grammar Book)

A Mysterious Case 5

Past simple vs past continuous

We use the past simple to express completed actions, while the past continuous is used for actions in
progress in the past.
I went to bed late last night.
I was sleeping at 11 pm yesterday.

We often use these two tenses together.
The children were playing happily when I arrived home.

In the sentence above, we see that the verb play is the background action, and the verb arrive interrupts it.

However, when we use at least two past simple sentences together, the meaning changes. Compare the
two sentences below:
When I arrived home, they had lunch.
(First I arrived, and then they had lunch.)
When I arrived home, they were having lunch.
(They had already started lunch before I arrived.)

Note: Remember that stative verbs are not used in the past continuous tense.
I wasn’t remembering her phone number when you asked me.

didn’t remember

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