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Maria D Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
They lived there for three months
Hello!
Could you help me, please?
The Workbook Face2Face Pre-Intermediate gives an exercise where students should choose Past Simple or Past Continous. Here are two sentences (2B, ex. 2):
1) Pauline and her boyfriend lived in China for three months.
2) The weather was very good so we walked home together.
Why in these two sentences should we use Past Simple instead of Past Continuous? The workbook gives the answers with Past Simple.
Thank you!
Could you help me, please?
The Workbook Face2Face Pre-Intermediate gives an exercise where students should choose Past Simple or Past Continous. Here are two sentences (2B, ex. 2):
1) Pauline and her boyfriend lived in China for three months.
2) The weather was very good so we walked home together.
Why in these two sentences should we use Past Simple instead of Past Continuous? The workbook gives the answers with Past Simple.
Thank you!
Top answer
Simple forms are the default choice. Use continuous (progressive) forms only if there is a reason to do so.
- Simple forms are the default choice.
- Use continuous (progressive) forms only if there is a reason to do so.
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3 Answers
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Simple forms are the default choice. Use continuous (progressive) forms only if there is a reason to do so.
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What fivejedjon said is correct. The past simple is the default choice for finished past actions; not only for short actions but for long ones too!
One context for using the past continuous (which you do not have here) would be where you have a short action interrupting a longer one, both of which happened in the past. In such cases, you would use the past continuous for the
One context for using the past continuous (which you do not have here) would be where you have a short action interrupting a longer one, both of which happened in the past. In such cases, you would use the past continuous for the
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