WHILE + past continuous and WHEN + the past simple Hello everybody! I want to ask you about Past Continuous and Past Simple. I've watched a video where a presenter said, "If you say past simple USUAL

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Jessicamessica

WHILE + past continuous and WHEN + the past simple Hello everybody! I want to ask you about Past Continuous and Past Simple. I've watched a video where a presenter said, "If you say past simple USUALLY we say WHEN and the past simple if you say past continuous we usually use WHILE with the past continuous. Here are some examples "I saw her while (so WHILE we use past continuous) she was walking home." She was walking home WHEN I saw her." So, you see in the examples WHILE + past continuous and WHEN + the past simple" (https://youtu.be/-W9-Ce56s0s?t=90) After watching this video I opened an English textbook and it was written: 1) Neil arrived late WHEN his boss was making a speech. 2) We were having a party WHEN I took this photo. 3) Tom saw the robbers WHEN they were leaving the bank. Personally, I haven't heard about the WHILE+past continuous and WHEN+PAst Simple rule before. And if I heard that wouldn't help in the sentences above... Is there really a rule like that?"if you say past continuous we usually use WHILE with the past continuous" could you give an example when after while I should use past simple?

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الإجابات · 9

Both Phil and Jeff have given good answers. I just wanted to say that there probably is no such thing as a straight rule that one tense makes use of one conjunction/connective. Teachers, both offline and online, cannot and shouldn't cover every little facet of a grammar point because a) it would take forever and b) it makes things confusing for the students. I'll hazard a guess that the video was just trying o make things simple and practical for the viewer.

١٤ أغسطس ٢٠١٧

"While" is a conjunction indicating some on going action; hence the use of continuous tense. "when" indicates the time the action is taking/took place. When I was eating, he came to me. -- emphasizing the eating period. While I was eating, he came to me. -- emphasizing the state eating. Hope this helps :)

١٤ أغسطس ٢٠١٧

Yes, there is such a tendency, but the key word, as you know, is "usually." "While" serves to reinforce the simultaneous and continuous nature of the action, but if you're already using the past continuous and there's enough context, It's not necessary.

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