Simple past VS Past continuous

Past simple

The past simple shows us that an action was in the past, not in the present. Regular past simple
verbs have -ed at the end (e.g. called, played, arrived). Irregular verbs have a different form,
usually with a different vowel sound (e.g. wake → woke, break → broke, feel → felt).

kalimat positif (+) The teacher came

 S + Verb-2 (past tense)

 S + be (was/were) I was a stamp collector

kalimat negatif (-) The teacher didn’t come

 S + did + not + bare infinitive

 S + be (was/were) + not I wasn’t a stamp collector

kalimat interogatif (?) Did the teacher come

 did + S + bare infinitive

 be (was/were) + S Was I a stamp collector

Past continuous

The past continuous shows us that the action was already in progress at a certain time in the
past. We can use the following time expressions with the past perfect simple: already, just,
recently, before, after, earlier, and by the time to show the order in which the two past events
happened.

(+) S+ be (was/were) + verb (-ing)

She was waiting for you yesterday.
They were discussing my birthday party.

(-) S +be (was/were) + not + verb (-ing)

She was not waiting for you yesterday
They were not discussing my birthday party
(?) Be (was/were) + S + verb (-ing)?
Was she waiting for you yesterday?
Were they discussing my birthday party?

The difference

Past Simple Past continuous

Short action Long action
Finished action Unfinished action

Ex:
Yesterday I _____ (Drive) home and I _____ (kill) a cat.
So we say, yesterday I was driving home. It’s not finnish, it’s a longer action than the other
action. So how long does it take to kill a cat? It doesn’t take long. It’s a short action and it’s
finnish. The moment was driving the cat is killed.