past and past confinuous tense

Past Tense
It is for permanent action. It is used for compeleted action with or without a fixed time expression (with time indicator)
e.g. Yesterday morning, i woke up late.
Yesterday morning is a time indicator.

A habitual action(past)
I ate bread for breakfast
Ate bread for breakfast is a continuous habit.

Past Continuous Tense
It is used to emphasize a specific time.
situation 1 :
At the same time
e.g. the door bell was ringing while I was cooking
"The door bell rang " and "Cooking" is done at the same time

ituation 2:
Longer action and Shorter action:
e.g. When I was sleeping, Mum suddenly shouted loudly.
"Sleeping" is a long action & "Mum shouted" is a short action

She and some friends was touring the South Island whent they stopped in Christchurch for a few day.
"Stop" is not the main action in the sentence. Hence, It uses past tenses.

past tense係過去式 - eg, he had lunch - 佢頭先食咗飯
past continuous tense 係過去進行式 - eg. he was having lunch - 佢頭先食緊飯

句入面嘅for係用作for a few days﹐意思係留咗幾日﹐其實同tense無關。有關係嘅係[佢地之前留咗幾日]﹐所以係過去式。

when 同 while嘅唔同係while係兩件事同一時間進行中﹐而when係同時間發生。

She and some friends was touring the South Island whent they stopped in Christchurch for a few day - 有啲字用嘅時候係好少用到進行式﹐例如stop﹐因為停留就係停留﹐唔會停留緊﹐所以係stopped。

Cathy phoned the restaurant when the pizzza arrived 一樣﹐arrive可以有arriving, 但依句係話到達﹐而arriving係類似on the way。依句亦可以話cathy was calling, 咁就會係cathy 打緊比restaurant時個pizza就到咗。口語上兩句都可以﹐但由於我地唔知道有無特定嘅意思想表達﹐所以唔好咁長氣﹐兩個到唔洗用ing。