Difference between past continuous and simple past

Question

I would really like to know the difference between these two sentences: 1. two years ago I was working in New York and 2. two years ago I studied English in England.

1. means that in 2016 I was working in New York, I started before 2016 and my working was in progress. It is an action occurring at a specific time= two years ago.

2. I am confused, because I am not sure what it means. Does this sentence mean I started studying in England two years ago, or does it actually mean I was studying in England in 2016, like my first example) and would past continuous also be possible?

GPY · Accepted Answer

olive file 6731. two years ago I was working in New York

This sort of past progressive sentence is most often used to set the scene for some other event or action, or when "something else happened at the same time". For example:

"Two years ago I was working in New York. I used to travel to the office on the subway every morning. One day, blah blah ..."
"Apparently Mr So-and-So worked here two years ago, but I don't remember him. Two years ago I was working in New York."

olive file 6732. two years ago I studied English in England.

This lacks the scene-setting or "something else happened at that time" sense of (1). It doesn't say how long you studied for, but it does seem to imply that your whole study period comes within the scope of "two years ago", so it didn't last that long. Some people might not find the sentence 100% satisfactory because of the lack of information about duration. Better would be e.g. "Two years ago I spent a month studying English in England".

CalifJim · Answer

olive file 6731. Two years ago I was working in New York.
2b. Two years ago I worked in New York.

It's better with directly comparable sentences.

If you're looking for a difference in meaning, you might not find a difference. The difference is more clearly a difference in the aspect of the verb. In other words, the same action or event can be seen in different ways, or in different time relationships, depending on the speaker's choice between continuous and simple tenses.

In your first sentence some working was going on at some point during the year that is two years before this year. This working may have started before that year started and it may have ended after that year ended. The speaker doesn't care about that. You can symbolize this aspect with < was working >. The "arrows" show an open time period.

In your second sentence (as revised above) an entire period of working happened within the period identified as "two years ago". The working that was going on started after that year started and ended before that year ended. You can symbolize this aspect with [worked]. The brackets show a closed time period.

........[ o n e . y e a r ] . [ o n e . y e a r ] . [ t h i s . y e a r ] ............
.... < . was working . > ...............................................................................
......... [ worked ] ...........................................................................................

It is nearly impossible to characterize these tenses with only two isolated sentences. It only starts to make sense when you see these tenses used in real-world contexts.

Generally we make these associations:

Continuous past .................. Simple past

background scene ........... foreground event
open period ......................... closed period
activity ...................................accomplishment

CJ

Difference between past continuous and simple past

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions