When he heard the police knocking on the door, he ____ under the bed. (hide)
✅ hid ❌ was hiding
- We use the past simple to talk about past events in chronological order; i.e. the main events of a story.
- First he heard the police, and then he hid under the bed.
When I was a child, we ____ anywhere at weekends; it was boring. (never go)
✅ never went ❌ had never gone
- We use the past simple to talk about past habits or past states.
The plane in which the football team ____ crashed and none of them survived. (travel)
✅ were travelling ❌ had been travelling
- We use the past continuous for actions in progress in the past or longer actions interrupted by shorter actions in past simple.
Why did you change the channel? I ____ that movie. (watch)
✅ was watching ❌ had been watching
- We use the past continuous for actions in progress in the past or longer actions interrupted by shorter actions in past simple. In the sentence above, when you changed the channel, watching the movie was in progress.
I ____ (study) so hard and for so long, that when I saw that I ____ (fail) the exam I was in tears.
✅ had been studying / had failed ❌ failed
- In the first gap, we use the past perfect continuous because are describing a continuous action that had started earlier in the past and had not finished, or had just finished.
- In the second gap, we use the past perfect simple because this event had happened earlier in the past.
I ____ to the West End a long time ago. (move)
✅ moved ❌ have moved
- We use the past simple to talk about past finished actions (usually with a past time expression like ‘a long time ago’).
When I turned around, the bike ____ (disappear).
✅ had disappeared ❌ disappeared
- we use the past perfect to talk about events that happened earlier in the past.
The two robbers ____ (leave) the building quickly yesterday.
✅ left ❌ leaved
- We normally use past simple when we describe a sequence of past events in chronological order.
- It’s active because we are saying what the subject (the two robbers) did.