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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Rules

Hello, I would like to ask you for your help with past simple and past progressive. I have read a lot about these two tenses but there are still some cases when I am not sure which one would be better. Could you please somehow summarize it and tell me some rules when to use the past simple, when the past progressive and when both of them are possible? I have problems mainly with sentences expressing duration like e.g. for five years, for two hours....and I am also confused with sentences with when e.g. When I watched (or was watching?) this film I cried (or was crying?)

I would be very grateful if you could tell me all the rules and explain it better.

Thank you very much.
  

Top answer

Anonymous I would be very grateful if you could tell me all the rules and explain it better. Hi Anon; There are not any comprehensive set of rules. In some cases, the choice is clear, in others, either one can be used, and it is simply a matter of emphasis.

  • Anonymous I would be very grateful if you could tell me all the rules and explain it better.
  • Hi Anon; There are not any comprehensive set of rules.
  • In some cases, the choice is clear, in others, either one can be used, and it is simply a matter of emphasis.
  • It just takes some practice and experience to make the best choice for a context.
  • You have to apply reasoning to the whole sentence, considering the inherent durative quality in the meaning of the verb.
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2 Answers
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AnonymousI would be very grateful if you could tell me all the rules and explain it better.
Hi Anon;
There are not any comprehensive set of rules. In some cases, the choice is clear, in others, either one can be used, and it is simply a matter of emphasis. It just takes some practice and experience to make the best choice for a context.

You have
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Thank you very much for your answer. It helped to understand it better.

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