Brief explanation for my students of Basic 2 on how to use the Simple Past and the Past Continuous

1. Simple past and past continuous
Basic

2. Simple past
We use the simple past to talk about events in the past and we usually use
expressions of time: last week, three months ago, on February, 7th
We form the past simple with –ed except for irregular verbs
Last week I went to a concert
I finished my homework two days ago
For questions and negatives we use the auxiliar did
Did you go to the concert?
I didn’t start my homework

3. Past continuous
We use the past continuous to describe scenes, what was happening at a given
moment, for example
While I was having a bath the telephone rang
When you arrived I was reading the newspaper
We always use the past continuous linked to another sentence with when or while
While I was watching TV my brother was playing on the computer
We form the past continuous with the past form of the verb to be + verb-ing and
don’t need auxiliar for questions and negatives
They were playing in the park
We weren’t cooking dinner
Were you studying when I phoned you?