sentence check

[endeavor6636]

Tony: I bought them last week by phone. I knew tickets would be hard to get because I heard on the news that a group of people in Los Angeles had waited in line for almost a month to buy some


in the sentence, could i use "had been waiting instead of "had waited"?

[Fieldmouse]

Originally Posted by endeavor6636

Tony: I bought them last week by phone. I knew tickets would be hard to get because I heard on the news that a group of people in Los Angeles had waited in line for almost a month to buy some
in the sentence, could i use "had been waiting instead of "had waited"?

Hi Endeavor,

Yes. "Had been waiting" is, in fact, a better choice.



Regards,
Fieldmouse

[DavyBCN]

Originally Posted by Fieldmouse

Hi Endeavor,
Yes. "Had been waiting" is, in fact, a better choice.
Regards,
Fieldmouse

I agree with fieldmouse. While both are ok grammatically, people often use the continuous tense to emphasise the duration of an activity - and they did wait a long time!

[Ouisch]

I think that "had been waiting" gives the impression that they are still there waiting in line and have not purchased their tickets yet.

"Had waited" implies that they stood on line for a month and finally bought their tickets and went home. They are no longer in line.

[DavyBCN]

Originally Posted by Ouisch

I think that "had been waiting" gives the impression that they are still there waiting in line and have not purchased their tickets yet.
"Had waited" implies that they stood on line for a month and finally bought their tickets and went home. They are no longer in line.

I don't think so, because "had been waiting" is past perfect continuous, and can only been used for something which happened in the past before another action or time in the past and is finished. If they were still waiting in line you could only use present perfect (have waited) or present perfect continuous (have been waiting).

[Fieldmouse]

I agree with Davy.






Fieldmouse