Why do we use the continuous in the case of the following sentence?

Question

Hello everyone,

I was drilling through some exercises today, boning up on my grammar. I came upon the following sentence:

"When I was in Germany we saw each other quite often because his office was near the school where I was teaching and so we sometimes had lunch together. "

The verb form that concerns me is "was teaching". Now, my gut got the answer right. However, I am a tad uncertain about the rule behind that.

Does the When-clause somehow makes it clear that the whole situation was temporary rather than permanent. As in "I was in Germany for three months. During that time I was teaching at an American college."

Is the example given by me grammatical?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

AnonymousDoes the When-clause somehow makes it clear that the whole situation was temporary rather than permanent. As in "I was in Germany for three months. During that time I was teaching at an American college."

Yes, I think that is a good interpretation—or the mere durational quality of the teaching assignment.

AnonymousIs the example given by me grammatical?

Yes.

Anonymous · Answer

Oh, thanks a bunch!

I'm going to be teaching in two years' time, so it's a complete and utter disaster that I haven't started to learn grammar until now! The grammatical dicta are in strife with what I call my gut. So I'm hoping that gradually, I will be able to sort out any conflicting points regarding grammar!

Best of all,

ST!

AlpheccaStars · Answer

AnonymousSo I'm hoping that gradually, I will be able to sort out any conflicting points regarding grammar!

Fair warning! Beware that there are different "schools" of grammar, and specific questions of grammar (especially the finer points) may generate some opinionated discussion here, depending on whether the person is coming from a traditional grammar viewpoint or a more modern approach. There are still lingering arguments between the "prescriptivists" and the "descriptivists."

For example, I was taught (in traditional grammar) that a clause has a finite verb and everything else is called a phrase eg a participial phrase). Modern grammarians call lexical structures with either a finite or non-finite verb a clause.
Traditional grammar uses "direct object", and modern grammarians call this a verb complement.

Traditional grammar has a lot of old "rules" (usually based on the eighteenth-century grammarians' attempts to superimpose Latin grammar on English grammar) such as "never split an infinitive" and "do not start a sentence with "and" or "but." These rules have largely gone by the wayside.

You just have to decide for yourself what authority (text) you will use, and be consistent, but please consider all points of view.

If the discussion gets too raucous, a moderator may intervene and request that the discussion move over to the linguistics forum. It's all in good nature, though. I've learned a lot from those who espouse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cambridge_Grammar_of_the_English_Language.

RandomGuy · Answer

AlpheccaStarsModern grammarians call lexical structures with either a finite or non-finite verb a clause.

In my grammar, the one exception to this is the ‘attributive verb phrase’, as in a hurriedly written letter, which doesn’t have the structure of a clause in that it can’t take clausal dependents (*a hurriedly written by her secretary letter, *a written ten years ago letter).

AlpheccaStarsTraditional grammar uses "direct object", and modern grammarians call this a verb complement.

I don’t know where you heard this, but ‘direct object’ is still in use. It’s just that now not all complements of a verb are analyzed as the object type.
See this discussion for the distinction between objects and non-object complements of verbs.

Fivejedjon · Answer

AnonymousSo I'm hoping that gradually, I will be able to sort out any conflicting points regarding grammar!

If you do that, you will become world famous!

I would not worry about it too much. It is important to realise that teaching your students (a) how to communicate effectively in English, (b) how to analyse English utterances with grammatical terminology, and (c) how to pass the examinations set by their schools, universities, governments and/or international examining boards are three very different things.

If you are serious about your chosen career, then you have come to a good place. Most of us here who respond regularly are interested in one or more of: the English language; English grammar; teaching; teaching English; enabling learners to use English; teaching English grammar; helping learners to pass examinations; pontificating on our own theories on any or all of these. Most of us have also a fair amount of experience of studying, teaching, and/or enabling, in these areas. That we often disagree on some of the finer points can be exciting.

May I suggest that you register? This will enable us to recognise you when you post and perhaps respond more appropriately.

Stoyan Todorov (Lafindepartie) · Answer

Thank you for the encouraging welcoming!

I might never make it as a top-notch teacher, but I'm self-aware enough to know which jobs to accept and where I would be of use. I'm passionate about teaching and I'm already helping beginners at entry level, and recently I've been given an opportunity to teach to A1 and A2 level students. I surely come uncoth and with uncertain grasp of grammar, but I am keen on expanding my vocabulary at a rapid clip. I've been gulping down whole chunks of fiction and non-fiction at a rate of roughly 50 pages a day. Grammar should trail closely behind.

I'm a shade uncertain about linguistics, teaching and the future. I stand a good chance of brushing up on my French enough to be able to opt to become an interpreter. As, it is, I have a great foothold and prospects are looking up. I will tap as much as I can into your knowledge and hopefully you will excuse my occasional inaptness, inexperience, and at times, even my sheer ignorance.

P.S. If I haven't dampen your spirits by this torrent of balderdash, feel free to unpick and knit your brows at any mistake I make in my attempts to communicate.

Why do we use the continuous in the case of the following sentence?

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