Question

Read these sentences and open the brackets using the past simple or the past continuous. Write only the verb forms.

Answer 1

Ann was drinking wine when her friend came in.

Steve was cooking dinner when he suddenly cut his finger.

Sue was cooking when she burnt her finger.

Answer 2

Answer:

1. Ann was drinking wine when her friend came in.

2. Steve was cooking dinner when he suddenly cut his finger.

3. Sue was cooking when she burnt her finger.

Explanation:

The past simple, which is the basic type of past tense, refers to a verb tense employs to talk about what occurred or existed in the past, i.e. before now. This is the basic type of past tense.

In the past simple, the time when the action took place or the even occurred can be recently or in the distant past, but it does not consider duration of the action as important. It asserts that the action has finished.

However, past continuous tense considers duration of the action as important, because it is employed to give an account of events or action that took place over period of time. Past continuous is therefore used to give the description of actions and events that began and usually continued for a short time period after the event started in the past.

From the question, was drinking wine, was cooking dinner, and was cooking are all example of past continuous because they are examples of actions that began in the past continued over a short period of time.

On the other hand, came, cut his and burnt are examples of simple past because they are examples of actions have finished.