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AlexBel Posted 12 years ago
English in Russia

simple vs continious

It's an example from a book.
My friend Nick and I studied at the same school, then he entered the university. When I met him, he said that he WAS WORKING for a big company OR he WORKED for a big company.
Could you explain to me the difference if I use past simple in this case.
  

Top answer

We use the past continuous together with the past simple when past continuous describes a longer action or situation, and the past simple describes the action or an event. So when you say When I met him, he said he was working for a big company actually means that you met him (past simple interrupts the 'situation' described by the past continuous tense), and he was working at that time (longer action). I think you should use past progressive ( was or were + verb-ing ) in your example.

— Snuppelina

  • We use the past continuous together with the past simple when past continuous describes a longer action or situation, and the past simple describes the action or an event.
  • So when you say When I met him, he said he was working for a big company actually means that you met him (past simple interrupts the 'situation' described by the past continuous tense), and he was working at that time (longer action).
  • I think you should use past progressive ( was or were + verb-ing ) in your example.
  • The past progressive talks about something that was happening for a period of time.
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1 Answers
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We use the past continuous together with the past simple when past continuous describes a longer action or situation, and the past simple describes the action or an event.
So when you say When I met him, he said he was working for a big company actually means that you met him (past simple interrupts the 'situation' described by the past continuous tense), and he was working at that time
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