having to do

[Rover_KE]

Your perseverance in answering these tiresome follow-up questions does you great credit, Raymott. I lost interest after Bob's post #2, which I thought answered the OP more than adequately.



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[tufguy]

Thank you "Raymott", you are a very good human being.

 

[BobK]

'The first time you did it, it you were making a choice. The second time was different - you were having to do it.' This is the sort of case I had in mind. Given time to get the syntax right, the normal thing to say would be: "... you had to do it.' But speaking in the moment, you might be seduced by the 'you were <verb>-ing' format.

b