The past progressive + yesterday

"What were they doing yesterday?" is OK. The difference between this and "What did they do yesterday?" is quite subtle. Certain contexts may seem to suggest one or the other.

seagull Regarding the sentence: What were they doing yesterday? What do you make of it? Does it sound funny? I guess "yesterday" is too long a time to go with the past progressive, but I'm not sure.

Hmm. I think I understand what you mean. If it comes up in a conversation, the speaker certainly intends to refer only to some limited time during yesterday, not

CalifJim If it comes up in a conversation, the speaker certainly intends to refer only to some limited time during yesterday

I don't personally see any reason why "What were they doing yesterday?" can't refer to the whole of yesterday or majority of yesterday.

Well, theoretically, yes, but that would be a rather long list, wouldn't it? ... were sleeping ... were eating ...

I imagine that the vast majority of questions regarding doing something yesterday would be much more focused. For example, if I noticed someone arrive in a telephone company truck at my neighbors' home and saw men carrying big coils of cable into their back yard yesterday,

CalifJimWell, theoretically, yes, but that would be a rather long list, wouldn't it? ... were sleeping ... were eating ...

Well, I'm ignoring inconsequential things like that, but perhaps we are talking at cross-purposes anyway. When you said "limited time", I thought you meant to exclude something done for the substantial part of the day.

GPYI thought you meant to exclude something done for the substantial part of the day.

No. That was not my intention. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

CJ

Thank you so much indeed, GPY and CalifJim.

I had thought that we should use the past progressive when we say that someone was doing something at a certain point in the past. So what I had thought of as a typical sentence using the past progressive was "I was studying English when my father came home."

But I just noticed that we could say, like, "I was working on the report the w

seagullI had thought that we should use the past progressive when we say that someone was doing something at a certain point in the past. So what I had thought of as a typical sentence using the past progressive was "I was studying English when my father came home."

That sentence is fine, but it doesn't mean that you were studying only at that moment. The stud

Thank you for your answer, GPY.

I'm afraid that I was wrong about some expressions I used. What I meant to say is "We should use the past progressive when want to say 'some activity continued for a certain period of time, over a certain point of time in the past.'" Is this pretty much correct?

seagullThank you for your answer, GPY.I'm afraid that I was wrong about some expressions I used. What I meant to say is "We should use the past progressive when want to say 'some activity continued for a certain period of time, over a certain point of time in the past.'" Is this pretty much correct?

That is one use of the tense, yes (uses 1 and 2 at the link I