Past Continuous or past simple?

Sometimes it can be tricky to decide which tense we need to use. Remember these rules to help you:

• A past continuous action is interrupted by a past simple action. e.g. I was shopping when I realised I lost my purse.
• We use past continuous to emphasize that an action happened for some time e.g. I was waiting for hours.
• We also use it to describe two actions that happened at the same time e.g. I was cleaning while he was ironing, just what you want from a Saturday night!

With these rules in mind, can you decide whether the sentences below need a past simple or past continuous verb?

Lesson by Caroline

• 1. When I ___ home last night, it started to snow.
  
  Walked
  was walking
  
  
• 2. I ___ TV when Joe came home.
  
  watched
  was watching
  
  
• 3. I ___ in Cape Town for two years.
  
  lived
  was living
  
  
• 4. Sorry, I ___ when you rang so I couldn't pick up the phone.
  
  was working
  worked
  
  
• 5. Jane ___ really well until she realised he wasn't coming back.
  
  was doing
  did
  
  
• 6. John ___ for us when we got off the train.
  
  was waiting
  waited
  
  
• 7. I ___ to school in a small town in the south.
  
  went
  was going
  
  
• 8. I ___ my first car when I was twenty-five.
  
  bought
  was buying
  
  
• 9. I just ___ that Luke is cheating on me.
  
  found out
  was finding
  
  
• 10. I ___ when I saw a huge spider!
  
  cooked
  was cooking