Past simple for a completed action?
I was taught by an excellent teacher that in a sentence like "I cleaned the kitchen yesterday" the past simple is used to convey the whole kitchen was cleaned, otherwise you'd have to use past continuous: " I was cleaning the kitchen".
I've come across many examples that say: "I browsed the internet yesterday". Why is the past simple used when clearly it is not possible to browse the entire internet?
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olive file 673 I've come across many examples that say: "I browsed the internet yesterday". Why is the past simple used when clearly it is not possible to browse the entire internet? It depends on the type of verb and how it is used in a sentence.
- olive file 673 I've come across many examples that say: "I browsed the internet yesterday".
- Why is the past simple used when clearly it is not possible to browse the entire internet?
- It depends on the type of verb and how it is used in a sentence.
- As you point out, 'browse' is an "activity verb" so it can't be used to express the idea that the browsing is complete.
- In a sentence like this, 'browsed' is equivalent to 'spent time browsing', not 'finished browsing'.
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olive file 673I've come across many examples that say: "I browsed the internet yesterday". Why is the past simple used when clearly it is not possible to browse the entire internet?
It depends on the type of verb and how it is used in a sentence. As you point out, 'browse' is an "activity verb" so it can't be used to express the idea that the browsing is c
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