simple past and past continuosVersión en línea read with attention and Match the columns, on these are descriptions about simple past and past continuos. por Alan Aquiahuatl 1 simple past 2 past continuos an old man sat dow and read his book s often used with an adverbial phrase that specifies a time in the past, such as yesterday, last year, (or) an hour ago," according to Complete English Grammar Rules. a nurse brought a little girl baby to the park two boys played with a ball forgot went I was crying while he was laughing was I washing the dishes when the phone rank? you weren´t playing refers to a longer or background action that was in progress is used to say that an action was in progress at every moment during a period of time. is used to say that an action was in progress at a particular time in the past. The action had already started at this time but had not finished.