Past Simle vs Past Continuous

Shows us that an action was in the past, not in the present

Regular past simple verbs have -ed, d, or -ied at the end (e.g. called, played, arrived, loved, carry-carried)

Irregular verbs have a different form, usually with a different vowel sound (e.g. wake → woke, break → broke, feel → felt).

My parents called me yesterday.

I woke up early this morning

Sam played basketball when he was at university.

My parents didn't call me yesterday.

I didn't wake up early this morning.

Did you wake up early this morning?

Did Sam play basketball when he was at university?

The past continuous shows us that the action was already in progress at a certain time in the past.

What were you doing at 8 p.m. last night? I was studying.

This means that I started studying before 8 p.m. and I continued after 8 p.m.

We were cleaning the house all morning.

She couldn't come to the party. She was working.

Three years ago, we were living in my home town.

I tried to give him some advice, but he wasn't listening.

What were you doing this time last year?

When we use these two tenses together, it shows us that the past simple action happened in the middle of the past continuous action, while it was in progress.

While I was studying, I suddenly felt sleepy.

I broke my leg when I was skiing.

As I was going to work, I saw an old friend.

We were watching television when the power went off.

When the guests arrived, Jane was cooking dinner.

When the guests arrived, Jane cooked dinner

In the first one, Jane started cooking dinner before the guests arrived. We know that because it uses the past continuous.

In the second sentence, the guests arrived first and then Jane started cooking.