English grammar practice exercise, for pre-intermediate and intermediate level In this exercise you will practise the past simple and past continuous tenses. Exercise instructions Use the words in brackets to put the following into the correct tense – the past simple or past continuous. questions go herescore goes here 🖨 Download these exercises Are you a teacher? Get PDF-format handouts of these exercises for your classroom or online teaching. Get printable version Structure of past simple positive negative question I / you /he / she / it /we / theyarrived. I / you /he / she / it /we / they didn’t arrive. DidI / you / he / she / it /we / theyarrive? Structure of past continuous positive negative question I was reading a book. He was reading a book. She was reading a book. It was raining. I wasn’t reading a book. He wasn’t reading a book. She wasn’t reading a book. It wasn’t raining. Was I reading a book? Was he reading a book? Was she reading a book? Was it raining? You were reading a book. We were reading a book. They were reading a book. You weren’t reading a book. We weren’t reading a book. They weren’t reading a book. Were you reading a book? Were we reading a book? Were they reading a book? Past simple – common mistakes Common mistakes Correct version Why? I was work in London. I worked in London. In positive sentences, a helping verb such as was or did is not used. He worked in London? Did he work in London? The helping verb did is used in past simple questions. Worked he in London? Did he work in London? The helping verb did is used in past simple questions. Did he wrote a letter? Did he write a letter? The main verb is used in the infinitive form in questions and negatives. He didn't wrote a letter. He didn't write a letter. The main verb is used in the infinitive form in questions and negatives. He writed a letter. He wrote a letter. Some verbs are irregular. Not all verbs end in -ed in the past simple form. Past continuous – common mistakes Common mistakes Correct version Why? I waiting for him almost two hours. I was waiting for him almost two hours. To form the past continuous we use was/were + verb -ing. What did he doing when you saw him? What was he doing when you saw him? To form the past continuous we use was/were + verb -ing. We were playing tennis every morning. We played tennis every morning. We mostly use the past simple tense we played for repeated actions in the past. They watched TV when I came. They were watching TV when I came. We use the past continuous when we want to say what was happening what was in progress at a particular time in the past.