had dinner vs were having dinner

[katnoric32]

Hi,

When Karen arrived, we were having dinner.
When Karen arrived, we had dinner.

What's the difference between two?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rover_KE]

In #1 we were eating when Karen arrived.

In #2, we didn't start eating until Karen arrived.

 

[engee30]

Not a teacher.

katnoric32, you might also want to look at such differences between sentences like this:

Which came first? Which came next/second?
In, "When Karen arrived, we were having dinner.", "dinner" came first; "Karen came next"
In, "When Karen arrived, we had dinner.", "Karen" came first; "dinner" came next.

And there's one more that I feel is worth mentioning here - in, "When Karen arrived, we had (already) had dinner.", "dinner" came first and "Karen" came second.