Hook

“I was cooking when the phone rang.” Two actions, two tenses — which one was already happening, and which one interrupted it?

Notice

“I was cooking when the phone rang.” — “While she was driving, it started to rain.” — “He broke his arm while he was playing football.”

Rule

Use past continuous for the longer, background action, and past simple for the shorter action that interrupts it. When usually introduces the past simple action; while usually introduces the past continuous action. Both patterns are correct: “When the phone rang, I was cooking” = “I was cooking when the phone rang.”

Practice

  1. I ______ (walk) home when I ______ (see) an old friend. Answer: was walking, saw
  2. While they ______ (have) dinner, the lights ______ (go) out. Answer: were having, went
  3. She ______ (read) a book when her phone ______ (ring). Answer: was reading, rang
  4. What ______ you ______ (do) when the accident happened? Answer: were, doing
  5. He ______ (not/listen) when the teacher explained the homework. Answer: wasn’t listening

Connect

Spot the tense mistakes in similar sentences with our Error Correction tool.

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This lesson supports: I can use a series of phrases and sentences to describe past events in simple terms.

Azizul Hakim
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