Past simple and continuous

The Past Simple and the Past Continuous

The past tense is used to talk about actions that finished in the past. There are two forms of the past tense in English: the past simple and the past continuous.

The Past Simple

We use the past simple to talk about:
 * Actions that started and finished in the past.

Examples: I bought that game two weeks ago.

the Past Continuous

We use the past continuous to talk about:
 * Actions interrupted in the past.
 * For parallel actions in the past.

Examples:

I was watching TV when the phone rang.

You were cooking while he was studying.