#1  
Old 07-Aug-2006, 10:49
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 34
Question Re:past progressive

Hello Mrpedantic,thanks for the last time..
actually you only answered my question about explaining the grammar but didn't fix my sentences..here they are:
1-the police man was smoking on Sunday, the policeman smoked on Sunday" what does the last sentence imply? Does it mean that the speaker watched the policeman till he finished smoking?
2-why are both simple past & past progressive correct in the first part of the sentence but only the simple past tense is correct in the second part( i.e. with the verb waltzed) I think we ought to use past progressive with waltz,
Because it takes a long time? The sentence is "the room floor shook (or was shaking) while they waltzed".
3- I've read that we say"I was going to auditions every day befor I got my job)but we say"we ate mutton every day"so why is the past progress used in the first one although the verb is finished?
  #2  
Old 08-Aug-2006, 13:30
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Default Re: past progressive

1 Not necessarily- they could just have seen the policeman with a cigarette
2 If you had 'the floor was hsaking while they were waltzing', then, for me, the floor would have had to vibrate for the duration of the waltz.
3 It adds some emphasis to the number of auditions attended.
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