Tenses
I assumed that I should pack a blanket and maybe some snacks for a picninc while we watched the fireworks.
Shouldn’t we use progressive tense after while?
Top answer
The given sentence is okay. ", this would make the sentence ungrammatical - the reason is that if you use the past progressive, this would mean that you were actually doing something in past time related to what is in the past progressive, but there is no action in the past here related to what is in the past progressive. "
- The given sentence is okay.
- ", this would make the sentence ungrammatical - the reason is that if you use the past progressive, this would mean that you were actually doing something in past time related to what is in the past progressive, but there is no action in the past here related to what is in the past progressive.
- "
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The given sentence is okay. If you used, instead, "...while we were watching...", this would make the sentence ungrammatical - the reason is that if you use the past progressive, this would mean that you were actually doing something in past time related to what is in the past progressive, but there is no action in the past here related to what is in the past progressive. The following would
0Abbas RajabpourShouldn’t we use progressive tense after while?
You can, but you don't have to. 'while' forces a continuous (i.e., activity) reading on the verb that follows:
Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
~ Nero fiddled while Rome was burning.
CJ
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