I was in the kitchen helping my mom.

[diamondcutter]

Mary: What were you doing last night, Linda? I called at seven and you didn’t pick up.
Linda: Oh, I was in the kitchen helping my mom.

(Go for It! a textbook for junior high school students in China, by Cengage Learning and People’s Education Press of China)

I wonder if the last sentence means I was helping my mom in the kitchen or I was in the kitchen and helping my mom.

 

[GoesStation]

Mary: What were you doing last night, Linda? I called at seven and you didn’t pick up.
Linda: Oh, I was in the kitchen helping my mom.

(Go for It! a textbook for junior high school students in China, by Cengage Learning and People’s Education Press of China)

I wonder if the last sentence means I was helping my mom in the kitchen or I was in the kitchen and helping my mom.

You have to be in the kitchen in both cases, so you could express the idea either way.

 

[diamondcutter]

1. I was in the kitchen helping my mom.
2. I was helping my mom in the kitchen
3. I was in the kitchen and helping my mom.

I wonder whether there’s any difference among the three sentences or they’re interchangeable completely.

 

[emsr2d2]

1 and 2 mean the same. 3 could mean that you were helping your mum in different ways and in different rooms, and you were in the kitchen doing something else. However, in the context of the original post, the length of time being discussed (just long enough for a phone to ring) pretty much discounts the chances of 3 being possible.

 

[GoesStation]

1. I was in the kitchen helping my mom.
2. I was helping my mom in the kitchen
3. I was in the kitchen and helping my mom.

I wonder whether there’s any difference among the three sentences or they’re interchangeable completely.

Number one slightly emphasizes your location, while number two emphasizes what you were doing. Number three gives nearly equal emphasis to each fact.