Past continuous

Question

Hello,Have a question from a work collegue learning English about the use of past simple and past continuous.Which is correct? "The team were playing between 8pm and 10 pm." or "The team played between 8pm and 10 pm."Well they both sound quite OK to me. I looked in Longmans grammar, here it says that the simple past (eg played) should be used to describe completed actions in the past. And also that the continuous past (eg were playing) should be used when the action began before the point in time and continued after it.hmm. Does that mean that you can only say "The team were playing at10 pm" or "The team played between 8pm and 10pm"?TIATony

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tony barnwell wrote on 05 Jul 2004:
[nq:1]Hello, Have a question from a work collegue learning English about the use of past simple and past continuous. Which ... and 10 pm." or "The team played between 8pm and 10 pm." Well they both sound quite OK to me.[/nq]
They are both grammatically correct.
[nq:1]I looked in Longmans grammar, here it says that the simple past (eg played) should be used to describe completed ... that you can only say "The team were playing at 10 pm" or "The team played between 8pm and 10pm"?[/nq]
Unless you want to talk about something else that was happening or that happened while play was underway, the simple past is preferable.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello, Have a question from a work collegue learning English about the use of past simple and past continuous. Which ... that you can only say "The team were playing at 10 pm" or "The team played between 8pm and 10pm"?[/nq]
The simple past would usually be correct, but the continuous would be required if you needed to treat 8pm-10pm as the period during which something else happened: "The team were playing between 8pm and 10pm, and the murder took place at 9pm, so Beckham can't be the villain".

Alan Jones

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]tony barnwell wrote on 05 Jul 2004:[/nq]
[nq:2]Hello, Have a question from a work collegue learning English ... 10 pm." Well they both sound quite OK to me.[/nq]
[nq:1]They are both grammatically correct.[/nq]
In the United States, the former is grammatically incorrect; "team" is singular.

Mike Nitabach

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[nq:2]Hello, Have a question from a work collegue learning English ... 10 pm" or "The team played between 8pm and 10pm"?[/nq]
[nq:1]The simple past would usually be correct, but the continuous would be required if you needed to treat 8pm-10pm as ... team were playing between 8pm and 10pm, and the murder took place at 9pm, so Beckham can't be the villain".[/nq]
"The team played between 8pm and 10pm" doesn't even imply that play started at one time or ended at the other, or that it was continuous.

"The team played between 8pm and 10pm, but we don't know exactly when. There were two periods of play, each of only 5 minutes, so Beckham would have had plenty of time to poison the referee's guide-dog."

Cheers - Ian

Usenet · Answer

Michael Nitabach wrote on 05 Jul 2004:
[nq:2]tony barnwell wrote on 05 Jul 2004: They are both grammatically correct.[/nq]
[nq:1]In the United States, the former is grammatically incorrect; "team" is singular.[/nq]
Astoundingly off-point. The poster has a UK address, more than likely is a speaker of BrE because he uses "the team are", and might even know the difference between AmE and BrE. I know that if I cared about that difference, I'd ask specifically.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

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[nq:1]Michael Nitabach wrote on 05 Jul 2004:[/nq]
[nq:2]In the United States, the former is grammatically incorrect; "team" is singular.[/nq]
[nq:1]Astoundingly off-point. The poster has a UK address, more than likely is a speaker of BrE because he uses "the team are", and might even know the difference between AmE and BrE. I know that if I cared about that difference, I'd ask specifically.[/nq]
It's also incorrect. Even in AmE "team" can be either singular or plural, depending on how it is being used:
Singular - "The team is coming on to the playing field now." Plural - "The team are putting on their uniforms."

Some cases can be either singular or plural:
"The team is/are flying to Chicago for their next game."

Before an AmE speaker jumps back saying, "Well I've never heard this," I'll add that I was taught this by a native AmE-speaking teacher in an AmE classroom. Admittedly she was a rather strict traditionalist.

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RobertE wrote on 05 Jul 2004:
[nq:2]Michael Nitabach wrote on 05 Jul 2004: Astoundingly off-point. The ... that if I cared about that difference, I'd ask specifically.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's also incorrect. Even in AmE "team" can be either singular or plural, depending on how it is being used: ... I was taught this by a native AmE-speaking teacher in an AmE classroom. Admittedly she was a rather strict traditionalist.[/nq]
I think it's probably rare to hear "the team are" by Americans who live in the USA, and I frankly can't remember if I ever heard any American use it when I lived there (40 years, from birth), but it wouldn't surprise me to hear someone with a strong background in British literature say that, and there are many American-speakers who fit that description. It might be more likely to be said by a Canadian-speaker than an American-speaker, I think.

Most American native English speakers would probably say "The team's putting on their uniforms", just as they probably more often than not would say something like "There's two bottles of milk in the fridge" instead of "There're/There are".
Your traditionalist American EFL teacher was correct, though. There are times when American-speakers can use "the team are" without being accused of making a grammatical error, but they aren't common, and most of the time, American-speaker domestic-English teachers (not EFL teachers of international English) would insist that "the team is" is grammatically correct. It isn't idiomatic American English to say "the team are"; an American-speaker would be more likely to say "the team members are".

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

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[nq:1]Most American native English speakers would probably say "The team's putting on their uniforms",[/nq]
I think you are probably right, although I would say "The team is putting on its uniforms."
[nq:1]just as they probably more often than not would say something like "There's two bottles of milk in the fridge" instead of "There're/There are".[/nq]
"There's two..." is not unheard of, even by me; but I think a substantial majority would say "There are...". After all, the number "two" clearly marks the milk bottles as plural, whereas there is only one team.
Gary Williams

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[nq:1]Michael Nitabach wrote on 05 Jul 2004:[/nq]
[nq:2]In the United States, the former is grammatically incorrect; "team" is singular.[/nq]
[nq:1]Astoundingly off-point. The poster has a UK address, more than likely is a speaker of BrE because he uses "the team are", and might even know the difference between AmE and BrE. I know that if I cared about that difference, I'd ask specifically.[/nq]
Astoundingly irritable.

Mike Nitabach

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Michael Nitabach wrote on 06 Jul 2004:
[nq:2]Michael Nitabach wrote on 05 Jul 2004: Astoundingly off-point. The ... that if I cared about that difference, I'd ask specifically.[/nq]
[nq:1]Astoundingly irritable.[/nq]
Yes, I know. Astoundingly irritating as well.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Past continuous

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