Lesson 4.1 · Past tenses
Past simple or past continuous: ‘I did’ or ‘I was doing’?
In business English you need the past continuous much less than you might think. The past simple works for almost everything that is finished – the past continuous has one main job: describing something that was interrupted.
From How to Use English Verb Tenses in Business by David Cox · 200+ diagrams for professional English
Using the past simple for anything that is finished
We can use the past simple for any type of finished event in the past. Single events, continuing events and repeating events can all use the past simple.
Yesterday morning was very busy.
Past simple to talk about a past continuing event when we say ‘when’ it happened
I worked for 3 hours,
Past simple to talk about a continuing event when we say ‘when’ it happened
and then I attended 2 meetings,
Past simple to talk about a repeating event when we say ‘when’ it happened
before I finally ate lunch.
Past simple to talk about a single past event when we say ‘when’ it happened
The past continuous for interruptions with ‘when’
The main use of the past continuous is to talk about a continuing event that was suddenly interrupted. These sentences usually involve ‘when’.
I was presenting the quarterly results when the system suddenly crashed.
The presentation was completely stopped when the system crashed. We say ‘when’ it happened, so the interruption takes the past simple.
Mixing tenses: ‘I was doing… when…’
After the interruption, the story continues in the past simple.
I was presenting the quarterly results when the system suddenly crashed
Past continuous to talk about a continuing event in the past which was interrupted by another event (past simple)
and we lost all the live data.
Past simple to talk about a past event when we say ‘when’ it happened (when the system crashed)
We had to postpone the meeting until Friday.
Past simple to talk about a past event when we say ‘when’ it happened (when the system crashed)
Other examples: We were negotiating the final terms when the client called the deal off. I was reviewing the contract when I noticed a serious mistake. The team was preparing for the launch when the regulator announced new rules.
The past continuous for interruptions with ‘until’
We can also use ‘until’ to describe an interruption which stops another event completely. You can then add another sentence with ‘since then…’.
We were growing steadily until a new competitor entered the market.
Past continuous to talk about a continuing event in the past which was interrupted by another event (past simple)
Since then we have been losing market share.
Present perfect continuous with ‘since’ to talk about an event which has been continuing to now
Other examples: Sales were improving until the price increase came into effect. The project was running smoothly until our main supplier went out of business.
Practise this lesson
Test yourself on the past simple and the past continuous – then put all the past tenses together in a business story.
Teachers: use these diagrams
You are welcome to use these diagrams in your lessons and materials. Please credit Fluency Space with a link to this page.
Diagram: Fluency Space – fluencyspace.com/grammar/verb-tenses/past-simple-or-past-continuous/Correct on paper is not the same as natural in the boardroom
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