Grammar: Past simple v Past continuous

Read the story:

I went to Nottingham to visit my sister. While I was riding on my horse through the forest, some men appeared. They were wearing green clothes and they threatened me with bows and arrows. They stole all my money. They were shouting and singing while they were robbing me. The leader of the thieves blew on his horn and some more people appeared. They were dirty and miserable and looked very poor. The leader gave my money to the poor people!



Do you know this story? Who were the men in green? What was the name of the leader? Did he really exist?

We often want to talk about events that happened in the past. The story above is about Robin Hood and his Merry Men who lived in Nottingham. Their story is famous, but they didn't really exist. The story is just a legend, but many books and films have been made about them.

To talk about the past, we need to use a past tense. We can use a past simple or a past continuous. They look different and they have different meanings, but both talk about completed actions in the past.

How do we make these tenses?

Every verb has three forms: a base form, a past simple form, and a past participle form eg

       shout/shouted/shouted           go/went/gone           threaten/threatened/threatened      give/gave/given

We use the base form + ing to make continuous tenses. We also need to use the verb be in the past

      shouting                                 going                        threatening                                   giving

      I was shouting                        He was going           They were threatening                 You were giving

Don't forget to use the verb be: it's very, very important.

We use the past simple form to make simple tenses.

      I shouted                                He went                   They threatened                       You gave

but if we want to make negative sentences or questions, we use did + base form

      I didn't shout                         Where did he go?     They didn't threaten              What did you give? 

Why do we use them?

We use the past continuous to talk about actions that were happening at the same time:

      They were shouting and singing while they were robbing me

We use the past simple to talk about actions that happen one after the other:

     They threatened me with bows and arrows. They stole all my money.... The leader blew his horn and some more people appeared.

We use the past continuous to talk about longer actions that are often interrupted by shorter past simple actions:

     While I was riding on my horse through the forest, some men appeared.

Read the story again and look at how the verbs are used. Now click on the links below for some practise:

http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/preint/a_grammar/file02/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

http://elt.oup.com/student/headway/preint/a_grammar/unit03/hwy_preint_unit03_1?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

Do you want to practise your reading? You can read more about Robin Hood using the books in the Study Centre.