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Rpsh Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

(past) continuous tense

' Was Carol at the party last night?' ' Yes, she ___ ( wear) a really nice dress.'

The answer is ' was wearing'. But I feel confused because continuous tense denotes that someone is in the middle of doing something. So how did she dare to wear a dress in a party? I mean if you use the continuous tense, you just say that she was doing the wearing, or showing the process of putting on the dress. So my answer is 'she wore '. How do you feel about the problem?
  

Top answer

Hi, "was wearing" doesn't show the act of wearing the dress. It shows that she had the dress on during the party. That's a period during which she was wearing it.

— Imantaghavi

  • Hi, "was wearing" doesn't show the act of wearing the dress.
  • It shows that she had the dress on during the party.
  • That's a period during which she was wearing it.
  • I hope it helps, Iman
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8 Answers
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Hi,
"was wearing" doesn't show the act of wearing the dress. It shows that she had the dress on during the party. That's a period during which she was wearing it.

I hope it helps,

Iman
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rpshif you use the continuous tense, you just say that she was doing the wearing
Yes. But the wearing of the dress is the fact that she had it on, not that she put it on.

The continuous tense indicates action through a period of time. The period of time in this case is the period during which the party was in progress. She was wearing
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So, if I say that she wears a really nice dress, does it imply that I emphasize on the result, while 'be wearing' indicates that I emphasize on the activity?
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So how do you describe the fact that the person puts it on without the usage of 'be wearing'?
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rpshSo, if I say that she wears a really nice dress, does it imply that I emphasize on the result, while 'be wearing' indicates that I emphasize on the activity?
No, "she wears" is general, means she usually wear that whereas "she is wearing or was wearing" refers to a specific period.

Cheers,

Iman
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rpshSo, if I say that she wears a really nice dress, does it imply that I emphasize on the result, while 'be wearing' indicates that I emphasize on the activity?
Yes. More or less. But it gets tricky. If you want a complete coherent sentence in isolation, you need something like

She wears really nice dresses.

T
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Got it, thank you!
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So detailed and vivid!! Thank you so much!
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