INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE CIÊNCIAS E EDUCAÇÃO À DISTÂNCIA

CENTRO DE RECURSO DE LICHINGA

Departamento de Ciências de Educação

Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de Português

The differences between Past Simple Tense versus Past Continuous Tense

Student’s name: Juvêncio Cipriano

Code: 96230473

Lichinga, May of 2023

INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE CIÊNCIAS E EDUCAÇÃO À DISTÂNCIA

CENTRO DE RECURSO DE LICHINGA

Departamento de Ciências de Educação

Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de Português

The differences between Past Simple Tense versus Past Continuous Tense

Student’s name: Juvêncio Cipriano

Code: 96230473

Trabalho de campo da cadeira de Inglês a ser submetido na

coordenação do Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de
Português da UNISCED.
Tutor:

Lichinga, May of 2023

 Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4

The differences between past simple tense versus past continuous tense.......................................5

The past simple tense.......................................................................................................................5

The structure of the past simple tense..............................................................................................5

Use of the past simple tense.............................................................................................................6

The past continuous tense or past progressive tense.......................................................................6

Use of the past continuous tense......................................................................................................7

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8

Bibliographical References..............................................................................................................9
Introduction

In the English grammar as well as in other languages there are tenses. Tenses define the time
occurring of an action and they tell us when something happens, the time of an action that is
called “verb”.

The English tenses are divided into three categories which are also divided into four types each:
The present tense divided into present simple tense, present continuous tense, present perfect
tense and present perfect continuous tense; Past tense divided into past simple tense, past
continuous tense, past perfect tense and past perfect continuous tense; and finally the future tense
that is divided into future simple tense, future continuous tense, future perfect tense and future
perfect continuous tense.

The tenses are the soul of the English grammar, because we use them to give an idea of the time
when the action carried by a sentence occurred, thus makes us to realize that before we are not
well aware of the tenses, we can not build sentences correctly, that’s to say, our sentences will be
built in an ungrammatical way.

In this context, throughout this English academic piece of work we are going to discuss in a
summarized way, contents related to past simple versus past continuous tense. It has as main
aim, to know the differences between the past simple tense and the past continuous tense.

What is regarding to specific objectives, the author proposed the following:

 Discuss the differences between Past Simple versus Past Continuous;

 Explain the structures or form of each;
 Describe the uses and usage;
 Give examples into sentences.

The work is generally structured into an introduction, development, a brief conclusion and a
bibliographical reference of the sources used by the author as to attain the objectives previously
proposed.

In terms of work methodology, in the present study the author applied for bibliography research
which was based on secondary sources of data, collected mainly from different research articles,
books, handouts, internet sources and others, as a way of attaining the objectives previously
proposed for the study.

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 The differences between past simple tense versus past continuous tense

Naturally there are some differences between the past simple tense and the past continuous tense
and we are going to explain them in details in the following paragraphs of the work.

The past simple tense

The past simple tense talks about actions that occurred in a specific period in the past, but which
are already finished. This tense is important as it describe actions that took place in our lives in
the past.

In this tense, the regular verbs end with a ‘-d’ or an ‘–ed’, and irregular verbs do not follow the
normal patterns during the conjugation in the past simple and past participle as it does happen
with regular verbs. These verbs do not have formula or real structure; therefore, it’s crucial that
the English speakers memorize each one of them, along with their special verb forms; otherwise,
they are going to face conjugation mismatches always.

Examples

 She traveled to Lichinga last year.

 I ate banana yesterday.

The structure of the past simple tense

The structure is: S + Verb in the past + object.

Example

 I danced Chioda at the party last week.

In the sentence above the pronoun “I” functions as the subject, the verb is “danced” and the
object is “at the party”.

Catchwords for past tense are: yesterday, last week, last month, this morning, etc.

Examples of the past simple in sentences

Affirmative form Negative form Interrogative form

God Blessed the hard workers God didn’t Bless Did god bless the hard workers?

Juvencio Joined the prayer team Juvencio did not Join the prayer team Did Juvencio join the prayer team?

I Looked at him romantically I didn’t look at him romantically Did I Look at him romantically?

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Use of the past simple tense

The past simple tense is used can be used in different situations as described bellow:

1. To talk about actions in the past.

Examples

 We hired a car.
2. To talk about happenings or actions that occurred in a specific moment in the past.

Examples

 I arrived at two o’clock.

3. It can be used with some adverbial expressions such as ago, yesterday, last month, in
2023, etc.

Example

 They arrived three days ago.

4. To narrate a succession of happenings in the past.

Examples

 First I spent a month in Beira, and then I travelled to Maputo.

5. To introduce clauses or questions in reported speech.

Examples

 He said that he lived in the mountains.

 They said that they saw an elephant yesterday.

The past continuous tense or past progressive tense

Past continuous tense shows that some actions remained continued in past. In words of only one
syllable we can say the past continuous tense talks about actions that started in the past and have
been completed before the time of mention. The sentences in the past continuous tense are
formed with the help of an auxiliary verb and giving the main verb an -ing ending, as follows:

 S + was or were (according to the pronoun used)+main verb in gerund (-ing) + object.

The past continuous tense uses the catchwords: while and when.

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 Use of the past continuous tense

The past continuous tense can be used in the following situations:

1. Talk about details of actions or happenings in the past.

E.g. He was watching football match on television yesterday.

2. To talk about interrupted actions in the past.

E.g. the phone rang while I was doing the washing.

3. To talk about actions that occurred simultaneously.

E.g. we were having sex when our neighbour knocked the door.

Examples of the past continuous in sentences

Affirmative form Negative form Interrogative form

She was reading a book when I She wasn’t reading a book when I Was she reading a book when I
met her in the library met her in the library met her in the library?

They were watching the match They were not watching the match Were they watching the match
together together together?

I was listening to music when I wasn’t listening to music when she Was I listening to music when she
she called me called me called me?

We were waiting for you guys We were not waiting for you guys Were we waiting for you guys?

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Conclusion

Along this work we spoke about the differences between past simple tense versus past
continuous tense.

In this context, we have seen that the past simple tense is used to talk about actions that
happened in the past and have already ended. For example: I told him to wait for us. And the past
continuous tense talks about actions that started at a particular period in the past but continued up
to the time of speaking. For example: I was dancing when he came.

In brief, tenses play an important role both in spoken and written English. In spoken English,
tenses form the backbone of the English language communication. In written English, tenses
play a significant role in constructing a meaningful sentence for the readers. Thus, the correct use
of tenses will imply the use of correct verbs with proper auxiliaries.

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Bibliographical References

1. Cabinda, M., Latti, M. ; Gouws, S. (2004). Learning English – pupil’s book, 7th class. 1st

Edition. Longman Moçambique, Lda. Maputo.

2. Myers, C., Jackson, S., Lynam, D. (2008). Step ahead: Inglês 9º nível 5. Pearson
Educacion, Longman. Paris.
3. https://www.grammar-monster.com\glossary\regular-verb. htm. Accessed on 25th April,

2023.

4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Accessed on 25th, April, 2023.

5. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com\definition\english\verb. Accessed on 26th

April, 2023.

6. https://www.britannica.com.verb. Accessed on 26th April, 2023.

7. https://www.grammaly.com/blog/irregular-verbs/. Accessed on 26th April, 2023.
8. https:\\avi.cuaed.unam.mx\repositorio\moodle\pluginfile.php\3617\mod.resource\content\

18\contenido\index.html. Accessed on 7th, May, 2023.

9. https:\\engdic.org\past-contionuous-tense\?amp. Accessed on 7th, May, 2023.