[etni] Re: Fwd: re: Grammar question
- From: Tal Ronen <talronen81@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>, etni all <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 14:45:13 +0000
I am also a native speaker. I found that there are many times, especially when
teaching the past progressive, that the rules and my gut feeling (by ear) don't
always match. There are also times when the rules don't always seem to match
the answers.
I just came across an example from New Practice your grammar for the 9th grade
(page 64). The sentence is: "Yael, who is only 15 years old, had never studied
physics or chemistry at school. She (learns / learned / was learning) these
subjects while she (studies / studied / was studying) for the competition". The
answer in the answer booklet is learned, and was learning. Can someone please
tell me why the answer is "learned?" According to the rules, we explain to them
that if there are 2 long actions happening simultaneously, then they are both
in the past progressive. Here she did study them the whole time she was
studying for the competition.
Thanks in advance,
Tal
> From: etni.list@xxxxxxxxx
> Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 16:27:53 +0200
> Subject: [etni] Fwd: re: Grammar question
> To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: LindaKM <lindakm09@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [etni] Fwd: Grammar question
>
> I am one of those- a native speaker- (!!!) and I instinctively
> picked, "told". The only way I could see using "were telling", is if
> they spoke about their adventures non-stop, during the whole meal!
> I'm not an expert, so I don't know if this helps! :)
> Linda Kuras Mizrahi
>
>
> Jennifer wrote:
> > 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?
>
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