Grammar

Question

HelloI want to know 3-4 problems that Arab or any student face while learning the past progressive tense and past simple tense?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

What are the 3-4 problems? Could you please let us know?

CalifJim · Answer

I don't know Arabic so I can't get that specific. Here are some problems worth considering, however.

1. Students sometimes forget which verbs are non-progressive and put them in the past progressive. *Susan was knowing that the train left at 9 o'clock (should be Susan knew). However, this problem is not specific to the past tenses. *George is having a brother. (should be George has).

2. A very frequent problem for students is how to distinguish the meanings and usages of the past tenses (simple and progressive) from the meanings and usages of the corresponding perfect tenses, the present perfect and the present perfect progressive.

3. With action verbs, a typical pattern contains two clauses in the past. The past progressive depicts a background activity in one clause, and the simple past a foreground event in the other. They were playing cards when someone knocked at the door. Students sometimes reverse these or put both clauses in the same tense.

4. The simple past can sometimes be used where the progressive past is expected, for example, with while, which forces a continuous reading even when the verb is simple: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Mary watched TV while Sam laid the table. Students want to use the progressive in these when it is not the best choice.

5. A similar problem occurs with time phrases. The past progressive is open-ended with respect to time. That is, it has no definite beginning or end. Students sometimes add adverbials which contradict this. Thus, as single-clause sentences, They played tennis for three hours is more idiomatic than They were playing tennis for three hours.

6. The past tenses do not always express past time. This confuses students a great deal. This happens especially often in if-clauses accompanied by would-clauses. If you had three brothers, you would soon learn to share. 'had' is the past tense, but the meaning applies to an imaginary situation in present time.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousWhat are the 3-4 problems?

I think you misinterpreted the question.

CJ

Tasneem1995 · Answer

students may face difficulties while learning past simple tense and past progressive tense, so I'm asking you to tell me some problems that students may face in general?

Tasneem1995 · Answer

Thank you so much this is very helpful

Tasneem1995 · Answer

Thank you CalifJim.

Grammar

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions