Past simple and progressive by Nick Shepherd

The Basics

I’ve said this before: don’t confuse verb tense names with real time. They sometimes coincide, but not always. Today I checked ten languages, more or less randomly: six of them used the same word to translate ‘time’ and ‘tense’. But they are not the same. Think about any languages you know. Do they use different words for (verb) tense and (real) time?

But I won’t go into that today; just remember that time and tense are not the same, although they often coincide. But we do need to think seriously about how we describe language.

Today we’re looking at the difference between past simple and past progressive, and the basic difference is straightforward:

Past simple = FINISHED

Past progressive = UNFINISHED, INTERRUPTED

I say, as always, “it’s more complicated than that, but that’s enough for now.”

Some languages use different tense forms to distinguish between a single past event and a repetitive past event. I talk about that later, in the “more complicated” stuff.

The English past simple only says it’s finished, not whether it was a single event, a repetitive series or a state. I can say, for example:

I texted Marine last week. (single event)
I played football every Saturday at one time. (repetitive series)
I lived in Mexico City for years. (state)

The first one is a single event, the second a repetitive series, the third a state, but they all share two characteristics: they were in the past and they are finished. And they all use the simple past tense of the verb.

Now imagine those sentences in past progressive:

I was texting Marine . . .
I was playing football . . .
I was living in Mexico City . . .

Immediately, we want to ask: ‘then what happened?’ Something happened to interrupt those events, or happened at the same time:

I was texting Marine . . . when James came into the room.
I was playing football . . . when it started to rain heavily.
I was living in Mexico City . . . when I got a job at the Anglo.

The second part completes the idea; without it, the idea feels incomplete.

Look at this couple:

“They were having lunch when the phone rang”

So that’s the basic difference.

“It’s more complicated than that . . .” OK, we know the rest.

I made a video on this basic distinction:

Notes on the “more complicated” stuff

Here are four of the ‘more complicated’ areas. New ones appear from time to time as speakers pursue their anarchic way.

1 Repetitive past

Here are three ways we talk about repeated past events.

1a We often use the simple past for this, adding adverbs to clarify what we mean:

I went swimming every day for years.
I always spent summers in the country. (or often, sometimes . . .)

Think about this in any other languages you know, including your own. I know two other European languages, Spanish and French, and they both use different verb tenses to describe single and repetitive events in the past. In English we don’t.

1b We can use the auxiliary verb used to:

She used to play tennis when she was younger, but she’s given it up.
I used to do the washing up, but now I have a dishwasher.

We mostly use used to when it’s different from what we do now, so it’s not usually about ancient history!

1c We can use would:

He would play the piano for hours.
They would go out every day for a walk.

Would carries an overtone, a hint of extra meaning: it sounds as if the person wanted to do whatever it was.

2 Unreal in present time

This is often called the unreal past, but the word past refers to the verb tense, not the time, which is present. It is used after a few expressions, and these are the most common:

I wish I spoke French. (now)
It’s time I went home. (now, or soon)
I’d rather you didn’t speak to her. (now, or any time)
I had better get going. (now, or soon)

These all share the same idea: they are desires; they are not reality.

3 Hypothetical present time

This is used in type 2 conditional sentences, and is similar to ‘Unreal’, above:

You would pass the exam if you studied harder!
She would do better if she took more care.

Again, the speaker thinks it could, or should, be true, but it seems not to be.

4 Polite form

Using past tenses can make the language sound more tentative, and therefore more polite:

Could I possibly speak to Mr Smith?
What did you want to see him about?

To use the simple present, ‘What do you want to see him about?’ seems too direct, too blunt, and invites a curt answer: ‘It’s none of your business’.

We can also use the past progressive form to be polite, especially if we want to ask a favour:

I was hoping you might be able to give me a lift into town.
Hello, I was wondering whether you had any free time today?

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