Ingles simple past and past progressive

Simple Past and Past Progressive

Form

|Simple Past |Past Progressive |
|irregular verbs: |past form of 'be' + ing form of verb |
|I spoke|  |
|regular verbs: verb + ed |I was speaking |
|I worked |you were speaking|
| |he / she / it was speaking |
| |we were speaking |
||they were speaking |
|Exceptions |
|Exceptions when adding 'ed' : |Exceptions when adding 'ing' : |
|when thefinal letter is e, only add d. |silent e is dropped (but: does not apply for -ee) |
|Example: love - loved |Example: come - coming |
|after a short, stressed vowel, the final consonant is doubled |but: agree - agreeing|
|Example: admit - admitted |after a short, stressed vowel, the final consonant is doubled |
|final l is always doubled in British English (not in American English) |Example: sit - sitting |
|Example: travel - travelled|final l is always doubled in British English (not in American English) |
|after a consonant, final y becomes i. (but: not after a vowel) |Example: travel - travelling |
|Example: worry - he worried |final ie becomes y.|
|but: play - he played |Example: lie - lying |


Use


After another or at the same time?

Do you want to express that the actions in the past happened one after another or at the same time?
|Simple Past|Past Progressive |
|after another |at the same time |
|She came home, switched on the computer and checked her e-mails. |Simon was playing on the computer while his brother was watching TV. |


Newaction or already in progress?

If you want to express that a new action happened in the middle of another action, you need both tenses: Simple Past the new action and Past Progressive for the action already in progress.
|Simple Past |Past Progressive |
|new action...