One-time or repeated / habit (simple past)

Question

Hi everybody,There is this sentence:' 'They left early in the morning.'I got the information that it indicates a one-time event (and not a habit) if I understood well. What part of the sentence makes it clear?For example: There is this sentence:She worked at the movie theater after school.The page (4th use) says that it indicates a habit (which ended in the past [but was repetitive]):http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.htmlI feel a bit confused.Thanks for your help in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hole One a New SeeI got the information that it indicates a one-time event (and not a habit) if I understood well. What part of the sentence makes it clear?

Only the specific context and common sense.

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thank you

I didn't understand it exactly. Does the answer refer to this particular sentence or it is a statement about simple past sentences in general?

Is the sentence ' They left early in the morning.' a one-time event or could it be repetitive (but ended in the past)? Theoretically it is a one-time event (based on a previous post) but I can't see the thing which indicates it. Could it be 'in the morning'? Does 'in the morning' behave differently in different tenses?

' I work in the morning. ' was a repeated event but 'They left early in the morning.' was a one-time event. That is the original post:

http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/InMonrningMorningsMornings/bgdrmm/post.htm

I didn't except answer so I posted this. Now it is a little bit embarrassing because I got answer there, too. I'm sorry for the mess.

Thanks for your answer in advance.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Hole One a New SeeI didn't understand it exactly. Does the answer refer to this particular sentence or it is a statement about simple past sentences in general?

That link is listing the several uses of the simple past:

Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past.
The Simple Past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past.
The Simple Past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past.
The Simple Past can also be used to describe past facts or generalizations which are no longer true
We use the Simple Past to list a series of completed actions in the past.

You must use your understanding of the world and the context to decide which is intended.

CalifJim · Answer

Hole One a New SeeThey left early in the morning. ... She worked at the movie theater after school.

The verb form won't tell you, by itself, whether the situation involves a state, an activity, a habit, a repeated event, or a one-time event. You need to take into account several other factors, for example, the type of verb, the meaning of the verb, the textual context (including any adverbs that might signal the aspect), and the real-world context. Moreover, the same sentence may be interpreted differently in context than in isolation. When presented with an isolated sentence, we have to make some assumptions.

"left", absent any other cues, sounds like a one-time event. A departure event. "early in the morning", a point in time, does nothing to contradict the interpretation 'one-time event'.

"worked" sounds more like a continuous activity. (Maybe you can leave suddenly, but you can't work suddenly.) "at the movie theater" does nothing to contradict this. "after school" suggests a time period relative to the regular repetition of a school day. All together you have the regular repetition of an activity.

CJ

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thank you very much to everybody for answering

Then it is really a hard case I think. I thought it will be enough to know stative/static and dynamic verbs (just in general, NOT in this particular case) as a categorization to verbs. But as I can see it is a little bit more difficult.

One-time or repeated / habit (simple past)

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