USE 1 Completed Action in the Past Use the Past Simple to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind. ————————————————————————————————— USE 2 A Series of Completed Actions We use the Past Simple to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th… ————————————————————————————————— USE 3 Single Duration The Past Simple can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a long action often used with expressions like “for two years,” “for five minutes,” “all day” or “all year.” ————————————————————————————————— USE 4 Habit in the Past The Past Simple can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It can have the same meaning as “used to”. To make it clear that we are talking about a habit we often use expressions such as “always,” “often,” “usually,” “never,” “…when I was a child” or “…when I was younger” in the sentence. ————————————————————————————————— IMPORTANT “When clauses” happen first Clauses are groups of words which have meaning but are not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word when such as “When I dropped my pen…” or “When class began…” These clauses are called “when clauses” and they are very important. The examples below contain “when clauses.”
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