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Could you tell me which one is right among (A)~(D) in the following sentence?

I [ (A) stayed / (B) was staying / (C) had stayed / (D) had been staying ] three nights at my cousin's house.

Also, can I replace 'three nights' with 'for three nights' in the above sentence?

Khoshtip · Accepted Answer

lucas21cCould you tell me which one is right among (A)~(D) in the following sentence?

All.

lucas21cAlso, can I replace 'three nights' with 'for three nights' in the above sentence?

I think it's a must to do it.

Lucas21c · Answer

Then, is "I was staying for three nights at my cousin's house" also right?

Khoshtip · Answer

I don't see any problem with it.

Lucas21c · Answer

I can't understand "I was staying for three nights at my cousin's house" is right because "I am studying English for two hours" is wrong. Also, to my ear, "I stayed three nights at my cousin's house" sounds natural though I am not sure whether "I stayed for three nights at my cousin's house" is right... (That's to say, 'for' is not essential here)
Could someone else confirm which one is right among (A)~(D) in the original question and answer the additional question about 'for' to make this issue more cleared and solved?

CalifJim · Answer

lucas21cI can't understand why "I was staying for three nights at my cousin's house" is right

The interpretation most native speakers would assign here is:

[I was going to stay / I intended to stay] (for) three nights ....

I was staying three nights, but because of the bad weather I only stayed two nights.

With this (less usual) interpretation, your other sentence is also possible.

[I'm studying English / I'm going to study English] (for) two hours(, and then I'm going to a movie).

Sometimes it's impossible to give exact answers because we don't know what situation you're thinking of when you ask your question. We just have to guess.

CJ

Lucas21c · Answer

In the original sentence, "staying" is the progressive form, and "studying" too. Under this precondition, could you tell me which one is right among (A)~(D) and whether the "for" is necessary, unnecessary, or optional?

CalifJim · Answer

lucas21cIn the original sentence

I've lost track of the original sentence. I suppose you mean "was studying" and "was staying".

Regardless, all (A, B, C, D) are grammatically correct.

'for' is optional.

CJ

Khoshtip · Answer

Below is at the direction of CJ's opinion:

CalifJim[I'm studying English / I'm going to study English] (for) two hours(, and then I'm going/I'm going to go to a movie).

And please note the words he applied in the explanation; "interpretation", "less usual" and "most native".

Lucas21c · Answer

CJ, to me, "I am studying English for two hours" still sounds very awkward and I think it should be "I have been studying English for two hours". Also, the 'studying' in your above answer, "I'm studying English for two hours, and then I'm going to a movie", is not the progessive form, but the future tense. That is to say, it means "I will study study for two hours (soon), and then go to a movie". "I was staying three nights" is not the past progressive form as well because it is a future event at the moment that you was thinking about it. However, as you know after I made it clear in the above post, 'staying' of (B) and (D) in the original sentence means action in progress. Considering this, could you answer my question again?

CalifJim · Answer

lucas21c"I am studying English for two hours" still sounds very awkward

Yes, it's awkward when viewed in isolation. I don't dispute that. However, I wanted you to see that with additional information, it does make sense, so we can't say that it's wrong in an absolute sense. It's only wrong in the wrong context. It's wrong when it is not understood in the sense we mean it when we say it.

lucas21c"I'm studying English for two hours, and then I'm going to a movie", is not the progressive form, but the future tense. That is to say, it means "I will study study for two hours (soon), and then go to a movie".

You misunderstand the terminology "progressive", "tense", and "time", so let's clear this up. The use of an -ing form makes "I'm studying" a progressive form (also called a continuous form). There's nothing we can do about that. That's just the way the forms are named. So it definitely is a progressive form. Secondly, the tense of "I'm studying" is present progressive. The fact that we can use the present progressive tense to express future time does not change its name to future tense. So when describing these forms, we have to be careful to separate tenses (the verb forms) from the usage of these tenses (the timeperiods that these tenses may represent).

lucas21c"I was staying three nights" is not the past progressive form as well because it is a future event at the moment that you was thinking about it.

Likewise here. "was staying" is the past progressive (= past continuous) of "stay". That's the name of the tense. However, it is used to express the future of the past. This is the time it represents.
______________

I [ (A) stayed / (B) was staying / (C) had stayed / (D) had been staying ] three nights at my cousin's house.

With regard to your original question, if you want to eliminate cases where the progressive tenses can be used to express future time, only (A) and (C) should be used.

CJ

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