Simple past and past progressive tenses

1. simple past tense

We used this tense to talk about the past.

FORM:

(+) S + Verb2 + O

ex: She studied English last night

(-) S + did + not + Verb1

ex: She did not studied English last night

(?) did + S + verb1 + O

ex: Did She studied English last night?

2. Past Progressive Tense

 Past Progressive tense  indicates continuing action, something that was happening, going on, at some point in the past. This tense is formed with the helping "to be" verb, in the past tense, plus the present participle of the verb (with an -ing ending):

• I was riding my bike all day yesterday.
• Barack was being a terrible role model for his younger brother.

The past progressive indicates a limited duration of time and is thus a convenient way to indicate that something took place (in the simple past) while something else was happening:

• James lost his watch while he was running.

Example

Singular	Plural
I was walking	we were walking
you were walking	you were walking
he/she/it was walking	they were walking

^{Adaptep from http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/tenses/past_progressive.htm}

3.Differences and similarities in the Simple past and the past Progressive

1. Use

Simple Past Past Progressive ·         action finished in the past (single or repeated) ·         series of completed actions in the past action was in progress at a special time in the past two actions were happening at the same time (the actions do not influence each other)

2. Form

Simple Past	Past Progressive
regular verbs: infinitive + -ed irregular verbs: 2nd column of the table of the irregular verbs	(was or were) + infinitive + -ing

3. Examples

3.1. Affirmative sentences

Past tense	Past progressive
I played football. You played football. He played football.	He was playing football. You were playing football. He was playing football.

3.2. Negative sentences

Simple Past	Past Progressive
I did not play football. You did not play football He did not play football.	He was not playing football. You were not playing football He was not playing football.

3.3. Questions

Simple Past	Past Progressive
Did I play football? Did you play football? Did he play football?	Was I playing football? Were you playing football? Was he playing football?

4. Spelling

Simple Past	Past Progressive
stopped (Double the consonant after a short vowel.) loved (one -e at the end of the word → Add only -d.) worried (consonant before -y → Change to -i.)	sitting (Double the consonant after a short vowel.) writing (Drop the -e.) lying (Change -ie to -y.)

5. Use

Both tenses are often used in one sentence:
While we were sitting at the breakfast table, the telephone rang.
We were sitting at the breakfast table when the telephone rang.

• Past Progressive → we were sitting at the table
• Simple Past → the telephone rang.

The action in the Simple Past (pink) interrupts the action in the Past Progressive (blue).

source : https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/simple_past_progressive_contrasted.htm