Which one is correct ? ⇒ S was doing/S had/done/S dad been doing Hello. Thanks to your big help, I have still been learning English with the help of "English Grammar in Use" published by Cambridge. I

keiko

Which one is correct ? ⇒　S was doing/S had/done/S dad been doing

Hello. Thanks to your big help, I have still been learning English with the help of "English Grammar in Use" published by Cambridge. I have a question. Coudl you explain why "had been walking" is wrong answer? Thank you very much for dropping by my page. (bow)

Unit16　Put the verb into the most suitable form, past continuous (I was doing), past perfect(I had done) or past perfect continuous (I had been doing).

16.3.

16.3.3 John and I went for a walk. I had difficulty keeping up with him because (correct answer) he was walking(he/walk) so fast.

Question１）Why ""had been walking?" is wrong?

Could you explain it to me please?

2017年7月19日 18:40

评论 · 4

The past perfect continuous is used to describe an action that happened before an action that happened in the past.

I had difficulty keeping up with him because he had been walking fast

This would mean:

First, John walked fast on his own (alone) before I arrived.

Then I arrived. Then John stopped walking fast, and we walked together. Now John was not walking fast. John had been walking fast before our walk together.

That is not the intended meaning.

The intended meaning is that John was walking fast while I was with him.

So:

I had difficulty keeping up with him because he was walking fast

This means that during our walk together (not before our walk together) John was walking fast.

2017年7月20日

Hello! We usually use past perfect (continuous) to talk about some previous action. Two actions "I had" and "he was walking"- happened at the same time. So you don't need to use past perfect continuous here. I hope I could help)

2017年7月19日

Thank you very much for all of your help. Without your help. I wouldn't make much progress. All of your explanations is very clear, and I learned new things. Thank you very much. (bow)

2017年7月20日

To try to understand this, I'll shift the verbs into the present tense for you and get you to think about two different situations.

Situation 1

Imagine that you are on the walk now with John (in the present tense).

Imagine that John is walking fast now.

John is tall. John has long legs. You are short. You have short legs.

John is walking very fast. This is a problem for you. You cannot walk as fast as John.

So you say to John: "please, John, can you walk more slowly?" John says "why?" You say "Because you are walking very fast now, and it is difficult for me to walk as fast as you".

In this situation, it makes sense to say that you have difficulty keeping up with John, because he is walking fast now.

Situation 2

Imagine that you are on the same walk again with John.

In this different version of the walk, you should imagine that John is not walking fast. John was walking fast ten minutes ago, but now John is walking slowly.

Walking slowly is easy for you.

So you would not say to John: "please, John, can you walk more slowly?" because John is already walking slowly. There is no reason to ask a person to walk slowly, if they are already walking slowly.

That is why "he had been walking fast" is the wrong answer. It means "he had been walking fast before, but then he stopped walking fast, and now he wasn't walking fast any more".

2017年7月20日

keiko

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