Question

"He jogged regularly every day until he got too old." In this sentence I was supposed to use either simple past or past continuous tense so i thought it would be like that "He was jogging regularly every day until he got too old"  since jogging requires a process i thought past countinuous would be appropriate. So can i also use past countinuous in this sentence or is there a reason why i should use simple past tense?

Philip · Accepted Answer

He jogged regularly every day until he got too old. (simple past)
He was jogging regularly... (past continuous)
He had been jogging regularly... (past perfect continuous)
They are pretty much interchangeable, only with following conditions to vary.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

WildoneSo can i also use past countinuous in this sentence or is there a reason why i should use simple past tense?

You can use simple past, past continuous, past perfect continuous for the verb in this sentence, but as for the pronoun "I" you always have to use "I", and never "i".

CalifJim · Answer

WildoneI thought past continuous would be appropriate.

That's also possible, but with "regularly" and "every day", you already have two clues that you're talking about something that continues, so it is not absolutely necessary to use the continuous tense to show this. These are all activities that occur regularly or as habits, but they can all be expressed without a continuous tense, thus:

Larry paid his bills regularly.
She practiced the piano every day.
They always fed the dog before they left in the morning.

It is fairly customary to use the simple tense unless the continuous action is interrupted by some event:

Larry was paying his bills regularly until he became unemployed.

(I don't know what you mean by "requires a process", but hopefully I've addressed that issue above.)

CJ

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