Describing past events - Past tenses

PAST SIMPLE

It is used to talk about finished actions and happenings:

Peter broke a window last night.

PAST CONTINUOUS

It is used to say that something was in progress around a particular past time:

When I got up this morning, the sun was shining.

PAST SIMPLE vs. PAST CONTINUOUS

The past continuous refers to a longer ‘background’ action or situation; the past simple refers to a shorter action or event that happened in the middle of the longer action, or that interrupted it.

The phone rang while I was having dinner.

PAST PERFECT

The basic meaning of the past perfect is ‘earlier past’.

When I arrived at the party, Lucy had already gone home.

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

SWAN, Michael. 1998. Practical English Usage. 2^nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.