Past Simple v Past Continuous

Read an extensive course syllabus that explains what each activity is, how to complete it and how it will help you improve your use and understanding of the present simple and present continuous tenses.

We set out the key objectives for this course so you can identify what you need to learn. We provide a downloadable checklist that you can print out to check off the points as you go through the course.

Review the main uses of the past simple and past continuous tenses and analyse some situations where both tenses could be used but the meaning changes. You can also download this presentation as a PDF too.

Compare and contrast the affirmative, negative, question and short response forms of the past simple and past continuous tenses. You can also download the slides used in our self-paced presentation.

Analyse the keywords that are used in both the past simple and past continuous tenses. You can compare them in our slides and download a PDF of these slides too.

Take a look at the common mistakes by English learners when using the past simple and past continuous tenses, so you can learn how to avoid them yourself.

Conversation is normally the reason why we learn grammar. We provide a list of the most typical conversation questions in the past simple and past continuous tenses and you have access to our conversation forum where you can write answers to these questions. We also provide you with access to our private Flipgrid community where you can upload videos of yourself answering these questions and listen to other learners' answers.

In this activity, you can integrate the past simple and past continuous tenses into your everyday life. We explain how the news can help and point you to towards our favourite online news resources. we have categorised all our favourite news resources by level, so you can easily find something that suits you!

Read our starter flashcards using the past simple and past continuous tenses and complete the sentence using your new knowledge of these tenses. You can also write your example sentences in our course forum and get feedback and responses from our native English teachers.

You are caught in the act of something and must make an excuse to get out of it. Use the past simple and past continuous tenses to help you create your excuse.

This review page summarises everything learnt in this course in a one-page printout.

We list the objectives of this course and your achievements, so you can see how much you have progressed by taking our course.

Expand your knowledge of the Engish language by taking a look at other resources we have published online.

We always appreciate any feedback from our learners. Here you have the chance to fill in an optional questionnaire telling us what you liked and didn't like so we can keep on improving for our future learners.