[etni] Re: Fwd: Grammar question
- From: Bari Nirenberg <bnirenberg@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni.list@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 16:34:58 +0200
I don't think that sentence can be justified with the rules for past
progressive unless the stories of their wonderful adventures were as long
as dinner. In other words, in order for it to be correct, they would have
to have started telling their stories from the second we started eating
dinner and to have told them until we were finished eating. It also
implies that only WE were eating (because THEY were busy telling stories,
so they couldn't have been eating, as well).
Have a look at these sentences:
While I was doing my homework, my mother was making dinner.
While I was doing my homework, my mother made dinner.
Both are correct, but they don't mean the same thing. The first means that
for the entire time I was doing my homework, my mother was busy in the
kitchen. The second means that at some point during the time that I was
doing my homework, my mother prepared dinner and it was ready before I
finished my homework. In the first sentence, perhaps my mother couldn't
help me with my homework because she was making dinner. In the second,
maybe she interrupted me before I had finished my homework in order to tell
me that dinner was ready.
There are certainly cases in which both past progressive and past simple
can be correct, but the different tenses imply different meanings. The
example you give sounds strange to my ear, as well, mainly because the
chances of it happening that way are slim. It's more likely that they told
us stories while we were eating, but they also ate and we talked about
other things -- dinner and the stories weren't exactly two simultaneous
activities.
Bari
On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 13:38, ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jenifer Byk <byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Grammar question
>
> While we were eating dinner they told/were telling us about their
> wonderful adventures.
>
> I know how annoying it is for a native speaker to turn around and say
> ?were telling? just doesn?t sound right, but there it is. It doesn?t
> sound right! I am a native speaker English teacher; I tried it out on
> various English teachers and English speakers, and none of them went
> for ?were telling?.
>
> Now I know one can justify it with the rules for past progressive, so
> is there anything that will justify the native speakers gut feeling
> that it isn?t right, or is it just a question of usage?
>
> Jennifer Byk
>
>
Other related posts: