LET'S GO WITH GRAMMAR

PAST SIMPLE & CONTINUOUS

The second basic step is the past tense. 

Past Simple is used to talk about actions or situations in the past. It used to appear with time expressions like: yesterday, the last night, the last week, last year...

The structure is the following:

Statements:          Sub+V(past)+ Compl.
Negative:              Sub+ DIDN'T +V (present) + Compl         
Questions:             DID+ Sub + V (present) + Compl. 

For example: I ate an apple yestedary.

But we have to identify IRREGULAR VERBS.  The most important ones are:

The Past Continuous is used when we talk about something which was happening at a special time in the past. 
The structure is the following:

Statements:              Sub+ to be(past)+ gerund V+ Compl.
Negative:                 Sub+ to be (Past,negative) + gerund V+Compl.
Question:                 To be(past)+ Sub+ gerund V+ Compl ?

For example: I was eating an apple.

We can find these both tenses in the same sentence and there is a CLUE to identify where is each tense: "When" always appears with PAST SIMPLE and "While" always appears with PAST CONTINUOUS.

EX: We were sitting at the breakfast table when the doorbell rang.

He met a lot of friendly people while he was working in California.

And finally there you have some exercises to practise:

1) When they (leave) the museum, the sun (shine)

2) The students (play) cards when the teacher (come) in.

3) While the children (sleep), their parents (watch) TV.

4) It (start) to rain while she (water)the flowers in her garden.

5) When I (open) the door, it (rain)

6) While Henry (have) a drink at the bar, his wife (swim) in the sea.

7) He (hear) a loud bang while he (talk) to his friend.

8) While he (take) a shower, his dogs (eat) his steaks.