Past Tense – Choosing Between ‘The Baby Was Sleeping’ or ‘The Baby Slept’

past-continuouspast-simplepast-tense

I'm having a misunderstanding regarding Past Simple and Past Prog.

The baby was sleeping peacefully through the night.

or

The baby slept peacefully through the night.

Are both work? If not, what is the difference and how can I differentiate between those tenses regarding these types of questions?

Also, is it correct to say:

She has worn short hair for two years.

it is a strange expression for me.

Best Answer

If you are simply describing a single thing (the baby sleeping), then you would use

The baby slept peacefully through the night.

However, if you are going on to say something happened while the baby was sleeping, then you would use the other

The baby was sleeping peacefully through the night when her parents accidentally locked themselves out.

About your second question, it's perfectly grammatical (and doesn't sound crazy) to say

She has worn short hair for two years.

Using "worn" to describe a hair style sounds a bit old (like 1950's old) to me and this isn't the most common way to say this. If I had a friend in this situation, I would say

She has had short hair for two years.

or possibly

She has kept her hair short for two years.

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