(a) Mary walked downtown yesterday.
(b) I slept for eight hours last night.
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The simple past is used to talk about activities or situations that began and
ended at a particular time in the past (e.g., yesterday, last night, twodays ago, in 1990),
as in (a) and (b).
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(c) I sat down at the dinner table at 6:00 P.M. yesterday.
Tom came to my house at 6:10 p.m. I was eating dinner when
Tom came.
(d) I went to bed at 10 p.m. The phone rang at 11:00.
I was sleeping when the phone rang.
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The past progressive expresses an activity that was in progress (was occurring, was happening)
at a point of time in the past (e.g., at 6.10) or at the time of another action
(e.g., when Tom came.) In (c): Eating was in progress at 6:10; eating was in progress when Tom
came.
FORM. was, were + verb + ing.
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(e) When the phone rang, I was sleeping.
(f) The phone rang while I was sleeping.
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when = at that time
while = during that time
e and f. have the same meaning. |
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(g) While I was doing my homework my roommate was watching TV.
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In g : When two actions are in progress at the same
time, the past progressive can be used in both parts of
the sentence.
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