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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

He is reading a book for an hour.

0I'd be happy if someone would answer my question. Thanks in advance.02br
02br
00Are the following 2 sentences correct?02br
02br
00A: He is reading a book for an hour.02br
02br
00B: He was reading a book for an hour.02br
02br
00What I want to know is whether Progressive form can coexist with a concrete expression of period.0-
  

Top answer

0A: He is reading a book for an hour. 02i 00 That means that he is still reading. 02br 02br 01font 00B: He was reading a book for an hour.

— BarbaraPA

  • 0A: He is reading a book for an hour.
  • 02i 00 That means that he is still reading.
  • 02br 02br 01font 00B: He was reading a book for an hour.
  • 02font 00Fine.
  • 0-
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8 Answers
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0A: He is reading a book for an hour. Say this instead: 01i00He has been reading a book for an hour.02i00 That means that he is still reading. 02br
02br
01font00B: He was reading a book for an hour. 02font00Fine. More common is 01i00He read a book for an hour02i00, but this version is qui
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10whether Progressive form can coexist with a concrete expression of period12blockquote
10 Yes, but it's not the most usual combination. The present will be interpreted as scheduled future time: 01i00He is reading a book for an hour (tomorrow). Then he's working in the garden for
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0－Do you mean "He was reading a book for an hour." is the same as "He was going to read a book for an hour."?02br
02br
00－And do you mean Progressive form can't coexist with a concrete expression of period02br
00 when you are expressing things of the current moment?0-
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1blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite12br
10－Do you mean "He was reading a book for an hour." is the same as "He was going to read a book for an hour."? 11b10No. Why do you think so? 11i10He was going to read for an hour12i10 expresses his past intention to read. It may or may not have have happened. 12b1
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10－Do you mean "He was reading a book for an hour." is the same as "He was going to read a book for an hour."?12blockquote
10 No. My example was in the 01u00present02u00 tense. A present progressive tense expresses an activity taking place at the moment you utter
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0Hi, Calif JIm.You wrote:02br
00No. Why do you think so? He was going to read for an hour expresses his past intention to read. It may or may not have have happened. 02br
02br
00－－Do you mean "He was reading a book for an hour." is a wrong sentence?02br
02br
00－－Can't Past Progressive Form coexist with a concrete expression of period?02br
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0Actually, I wrote that. Calif Jim gave a far more comprehensive answer.02br
02br
00I said already that 01i00He was reading a book for an hour 02i00is possible, but not as common as the simple past.02br
02br
00Jim's explanation of why "You are reading a book for an hour" isn't used as an indication of what is occuring at the moment w
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0Hi, Calif Jim. I see your idea about Present Progressive well, but I'm not so sure about this－－ You wrote:02br
00The past progressive doesn't work the same as the present progressive, so you can refer to more than just a short moment with the past progressive. 02br
02br
00--- So, what's the difference between the working of Present Progressive and that of Past Pr
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