Simple Past or Past Progressive – English Tense Comparison
- Usage
- Signal Words: Simple Past vs. Past Progressive
- Verbs that are not used in the progressive form
- Conjugation
- Online exercises to improve your English
- Lingolia Plus English
Introduction
The simple past and the past progressive, also past continuous, are used to express actions in the past. We use the simple past as the narrative form of the past to express completed, sequential actions. We use the past progressive to say what was happening at a particular moment in the past, to set the scene and to emphasise duration of a past action.
Learn the difference between the simple past and the past progressive in English grammar with Lingolia’s tense comparison table. Then test your understanding in the exercises.
Example

I spent my holidays in Wales last year. I travelled around by bike. Every morning I got up early, set off on my bike, visited the villages on the way and talked to people.
My friends preferred to spend their holidays by the sea. So while I was cycling, my friends were probably sitting on the beach.
But one day, when I was talking to a farmer in a village, my mobile rang. My friends were calling to tell me that they were waiting under a bus stop because it was raining so heavily at the seaside!
Usage
The chart below provides an overview of the differences between the English simple past and past progressive, also past continuous, tenses.
Simple Past | Past Progressive |
---|---|
narrative tense to describe actions that take place one after another
|
to describe two actions which are taking place simultaneously
|
to describe an action which interrupts a second action
|
to set the scene/describe an action already in progress in the past
|
to talk about completed actions
|
to emphasise that an action or state continued for a longer time in the past
|
Signal Words: Simple Past vs. Past Progressive
Signal words can help us to recognise which tense to use in a sentence. Below is a list of signal words for the simple past and past progressive tenses.
Simple Past | Past Progressive | ||
---|---|---|---|
Signal Word | Example | Signal Word | Example |
when | I was cycling on the road when the rain started. | when | When I was cycling I saw the most beautiful sunset. |
then | Then I unlocked my bike and set off. | while | While I was cycling my friends were hiding from the rain. |
first | First I put on my trainers. | ||
suddenly | I was taking a break and suddenly I heard a loud crash. |
Verbs that are not used in the progressive form
The following verbs are not generally used in a progressive form.
- stative verbs
be*, cost, fit, mean, remain, suit- Example:
- The weather was awful.
- verbs that indicate possession/belonging
belong, have*- Example:
- I didn’t have a lot of luggage.
- verbs of sensory perception
feel*, hear, see*, smell*, taste*, touch- Example:
- I saw many villages.
- verbs that express feelings
hate, hope, like, love, prefer, regret, want, wish- Example:
- My friends preferred to spend their holidays by the sea.
- verbs of thought and recognition
believe, know, realise, recognise, seem, think*, understand- Example:
- I thought they would be sitting at the beach all day.
- clauses accompanying direct speech
answer, ask, reply, say- Example:
- “We are spending all day inside,” my friends said.
*change of meaning
Some stative verbs also have a progressive form, but the meaning of the progressive form is sightly different.
stative form | progressive form | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
verb | meaning | example | meaning | example |
be | state | The weather was wonderful. | deliberate behaviour | He was being silly. |
have | possession | He had a red bicycle. | in particular expressions | He was having a good time. |
feel | opinion | I felt it was a great day at the beach. | feel (health) | He wasn’t feeling well. |
feel (sense) | It felt like it was going to rain. | touch | I was feeling the warm sand between my toes. | |
see |
sight | I saw my friends at the beach. | be together with somebody | Nigel and Beatrice were seeing each other. |
understand | I saw your point of view. | have an appointment, meeting | I was seeing my friends that afternoon. | |
smell | smell (sense) |
It smelt like rain. |
smell something (action) | Why were you smelling your bicycle? |
taste | sense, quality of food/drink |
The ice-cream tasted delicious. |
try, test (action) | I was tasting the ice-cream to see if it’d been poisoned. |
think | believe | I thought it was going to be hot that day. | contemplate | What were you thinking about? |
Learn more about the progressive aspect with Lingolia’s visual tense timeline.
Conjugation
For information on the conjugation of these two tenses, see: