Help please
I can't understand why the writer uses the ing form of the verb 'spand' ? In my opinion the writer should have written spent instead of spending!
(This is the second time I asked this question! In previous question, I made some changes to original text to make it more understandable but unfortunately it resulted in the reverse! So I couldn't get my answer!).

The pie chart shows that the average household paid a total of 6,021 for their food, while also spending 7,000 dollars on travel.

Question

Help please
I can't understand why the writer uses the ing form of the verb 'spand' ? In my opinion the writer should have written spent instead of spending!
(This is the second time I asked this question! In previous question, I made some changes to original text to make it more understandable but unfortunately it resulted in the reverse! So I couldn't get my answer!).

The pie chart shows that the average household paid a total of 6,021 for their food, while also spending 7,000 dollars on travel.

Answer

Your sentence is not grammatically incorrect. The word while indicates in progress.  That is why the -ing on spending. You could say the average household paid $ and spent $ keeping everything in the past tense if you prefer.

Answer

Hello Mona,

I would suggest that even though the question is written in past tense, the phrase ‘while also’ suggests it changes to present. This is to show the amount the household was spending in that particular moment of time.

If I rewrote the sentence to this:
‘While they were spending $6,000 on food, they were also spending an additional £7,000 on travel.’
Would this make it clearer that the pie chart is showing expenditure at a particular moment in time?

Hope this helps