|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > The use of "while"
The use of "while"
|
teacher drica
|
The use of "while"
|
|
I have a question: Is this sentence correct "While we cooked dinner last night, my sister had a shower" ?. I know I should use While we were cooking dinner last night, my sister was having a shower. But is the first sentence ok??? Thanks for your help. |
15 May 2017
|
|
|
|
FrauSue
|
|
Your first sentence sounds fine to me. It suggests that your cooking and her shower took more or less the same amount of time. |
15 May 2017
|
|
|
maryse pey�
|
|
Well I would say "My sister had a shower while we were cooking dinner last night."
The questions I need to answer are "Are the 2 actions of the same length ?" If yes you will use BE + -ing for both verbs.
If one of the 2 actions longer than the other - ask yourself which action is the longer and which one is the shorter ? - then you will use BE + -ing for the longer action and a "simple" (= non -ing) tense for the shorter action.
Hope this answers your question. |
15 May 2017
|
|
|
Minka
|
|
I think both sentences are correct, but past continuous is more common with "while". |
15 May 2017
|
|
|
yanogator
|
|
All of the answers above are correct. As I �ve said a few times here, the continuous tenses are used when we want to specify the duration of an event, focusing on the activity itself as a process. Your original sentence is correct if you just want to describe two events in the past, which is what the simple past is used for. Bruce |
15 May 2017
|
|
|
