In the first sentence, he was burning some documents. In the second, he was trying to burn them.

Student or Learner
When the police broke into the house, he was trying to delete important data on the computer and “was burning” some documents.
When the police broke into the house, he was trying to delete important data on the computer and “burn” some documents.
In the two sentence above, which is correct and more common?
Last edited by z7655431; 25-Jan-2016 at 15:34.
In the first sentence, he was burning some documents. In the second, he was trying to burn them.
You probably mean "downloaded" data, not "import data."
I'd use "to burn", not just "burn" in the second sentence.
Do you mean that he was setting paper documents on fire?