Storytelling: Past Continuous vs Past Simple

 Today's post will show you the basic grammar commonly used for telling stories. Storytelling skills are very useful even in business situations where you may have to write reports or explain actions.

Let's look at the two-panel comic below.

Match the correct sentence to the first two panels of the comic.


1/ Yan read a book when the phone rang.

 
2/ Yan was reading a book when the phone rang.

 Click on "read more" to see the answer.




The correct passage is #2. 

Yan was reading a book when the phone rang.

In the sentence above there are two grammar points: the past continuous and the past simple.


The past continuous is about unfinished actions in the past. The past simple is about completed actions in the past. 

Let's look at the (poorly drawn) timeline below. 

The past continuous is used when an action in progress is stopped by another completed action in the past. Yan didn't finish reading the book, because the phone rang. 


Question: What did Yan do when the phone rang?

 

He put the book down and went over to the phone. 

                                        He picked it up and said, "Hello". 

All the sentences for the second part of the story are in the past simple because they are about completed actions in the past. Now let's look at the complete comic story.

Yan was reading a book when the phone rang.  

     He put the book down and went over to the phone. 

                                           He picked it up and said, "Hello". 

Notice that when is used to show that a completed action has interrupted another action in the past. 

We use while when the unfinished past action wasn't stopped or if it continued for a much longer time. Let's look at the examples below (apologies for the poor image editting).

While Mark and Janet were watching tv, a burglar got into their home and stole their money.

It began to rain while we were playing football.

Exercises

Study the mini-comics. Write short passages using past continuous,past simple, when/while(one to three sentences).  You can use the comments section to write your answers. 

Below are some words and phrases you can use to help you (feel free to use your own words too).

1/

2/

Words and Phrases: strange noise, down the street, car crash, terrible, phone booth, 911, homework

3/What were you doing the first time you heard or used English?

example: I was working in a coffee shop when two American tourists came in, and ordered coffee. I used my electronic dictionary to get their order.

Try this Snakes & Ladders game or this quiz from englishmedialab.com to practice past continuous and past simple.

The good people at EngVid also have a two part series on past continuous and past simple.