Practice Past Simple / Past Continuous: exercises for translation from Russian

If you confuse the tenses of the English verb Past Simple / Past Continuous, the exercises for translating sentences will help you in practice to understand the difference between the grammatical form of two different time categories.

Past simple

Translate into English using verbs in the appropriate time format:

• Yesterday I was invited for a birthday.
• John had an accident two days ago. It's good that he did not suffer.
• Yesterday my mother bought goldfish, and we installed an aquarium.
• Who broke the window in the office last night?
• I graduated from university five years ago and now I work as an accountant.
• The author of the work stressed the importance of studying this problem.
• What time did your yesterday's lesson end? Did you pass the Past Simple / Past Continuous examples ?
• A week ago I decided to go in for sports regularly.
• Dinosaurs inhabited the planet many thousands of years ago.
• What year did you go to college?

Past long-lasting

The time period specified in the proposal determines the use of the Past Simple / Past Continuous formulas. Exercises are given below. Pay special attention to the circumstances of the time, translate examples using verbs in the Past Continuous:

• Yesterday, from two to four, I diligently worked on the assignment in mathematics.
• From May to August last year, the University held sports competitions.
• How long did you knit this sweater yesterday?
• On Monday for a whole morning, the teacher explained the Past Simple / Past Continuous formulas to us. Exercises in the textbook, we discussed about an hour.
• Yesterday, from morning till night, John repaired a broken car.
• What did you do from five to six in the evening last Saturday?
• From October to December, students performed practical assignments.
• From lunch to late at night, loud music played in the neighbors' yard.
• How long did you write yesterday on literature?

Past Simple / Past Continuous

Exercises for translation are primarily aimed at developing the ability to use appropriate grammatical formulas. Below are the proposals that need not only be correctly translated into English, but also correctly identified in terms of belonging to one of the two past times.

• Yesterday I left the keys in the office.
• Who lost a passport a couple of days ago on the school grounds?
• Yesterday from two to five Elizabeth baked a birthday cake.
• Did you go to the movies last week?
• And they lived happily ever after.
• Throughout the film, the main character felt guilty.
• On October 9, Bill returned the book to the library.
• From Monday to Friday, they worked hard for the upcoming Halloween.
• I do not know which project Josh worked on the whole evening yesterday.
• How long did you translate this text yesterday?

To fully master the theoretical material, it is recommended to perform other exercises for translation from Russian into English.