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Paul Evdokimov Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

the choice of the tenses (II)

Hi there,

Please fill in the gaps and explain your choice:

"Now he was sitting behind the large shiny desk...As usual, on the top of his desk there ___ (stand) a large jug of barley water... He _____ (undergo) it in an East End hospital while the bombs ___ (rain) down."

Thanks for your comments.
  

Top answer

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  • Try it and we'll tell you if you are right.
  • If you have the wrong answer, we can explain it to you.
  • I will help you, though.
  • You need to decide if you want to use the simple past tense or the past progressive (past continuous).
  • Remember that some verbs don't usually occur in the progressive.
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12 Answers
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Try it and we'll tell you if you are right. If you have the wrong answer, we can explain it to you. I will help you, though.

You need to decide if you want to use the simple past tense or the past progressive (past continuous). Remember that some verbs don't usually occur in the progressive.
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It is hard to make any sense of the connection between the first two sentences and the last sentence without seeing the intervening text.
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OK.
1. As usual, on the top of his desk there ____ a large jug of barley water...

a) In the previous sentence, the author utilizes the past continuous tense (..."he was sitting...'') which implies a sort of snapshot of a moment in time, therefore I think it would be better to keep the pattern:
As usual, there was a large jug of barley water standing
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Paul Evdokimov"Now he was sitting behind the large shiny desk...As usual, on the top of his desk there stood (stand) a large jug of barley water...
He underwent (undergo) it in an East End hospital while the bombs were raining (rain) down."
After an
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Paul Evdokimov
Now that you've shown your source (which, as it happens, does not get copied into the quote box) I would like to suggest the alternative 'had undergone'.

You can still use 'was raining' in the associated clause. In most cases you only need one use of the past perfect to orient the reader to the time frame. Everything after that can ea
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CalifJim"Now he was sitting behind the large shiny desk...As usual, on the top of his desk there stood (stand) a large jug of barley water...
'he was sitting', but a jug stood... I wonder why it's correct to mix simple and continuous verb forms of the action verbs while describing a picture?
"Now a follow-up question:
When we're
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Paul EvdokimovWhen we're describing a photo or a scene, we use the present continuous tense. Is it still correct to use the present simple for inanimate objects in such cases, eg. the jug stands, the gloves lie, etc.?"
Yes, it's the narrative present, sometimes called historic one.
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Paul EvdokimovWhen we're describing a photo or a scene, we use the present continuous tense. Is it still correct to use the present simple for inanimate objects in such cases, eg. the jug stands, the gloves lie, etc.?"
Yes. We don't always use the present continuous to describe photos or scenes.
Paul Evdokimov'he was sitting', but a ju
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CalifJimActually, it wasn't 'a jug stood'; it was 'there stood a jug', but the simple tense is OK either way.
'There stood a jug' equals 'a jug stood', doesn't it?
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