The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.
Past Progressive_____
The past continuous tense, also known as the past progressive tense, refers to a continuing action or state that was happening at some point in the past. ... It can also be used to describe something that was happening continuously in the past when another action interrupted it.
