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		ESL forum >
		
		
		Ask for help > Help with making a question.     
			
		 Help with making a question. 
		
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 Telma Costa
 
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							| Help with making a question. 
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							| Hi there, I �m a bit messed up. What should be the question to get this answer?:  �We soon started chatting to a boy who said  was 19. We would chat to him for an hour each
day. � I was thinking about  �
  �How long did they chat
to the boy every day? - But it just doesn �t sound right! :-( Can someone help me, please. Thanks
 |  16 May 2011      
					
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 maryse pey�
 
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							| Hi Telma,   in my opinion you are wrong with the auxiliary and the personal pronoun. I would write : How long would you chat to him (the boy) each day ?   hope this will help. good night dear. |  16 May 2011     
					
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 suhakhader
 
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							| Hello to all of you,   I agree with you, Maryse peye!  |  16 May 2011     
					
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 helena2009
 
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							| �We soon started chatting to a boy who said  was 19. We would chat to him for an hour each
day. � 
 
 What does would mean in the second sentence?
 
 |  16 May 2011     
					
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 Telma Costa
 
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							| Well, I didn �t write the text myself, but it seems to me that  �would � is being used as a synonym for  �used to �, ie, a repetead action in the past! Am I wrong? Thank you all for your help :-) |  16 May 2011     
					
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 maryse pey�
 
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							| well, I would say this conditional is a future habit in the past. The preterit of  �started � in the previous sentence makes logical this future. |  16 May 2011     
					
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 helena2009
 
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							| Look at this : 
 
 We sometimes use would (rather like used to) when talking about habitual past behaviour: Every weekday my father would come home from work at 6pm and watch TV. Every summer we �d go to the seaside. Sometimes she �d phone me in the middle of the night. We would always argue. We could never agree. 
 This quoation is from here.
 
 
 |  16 May 2011     
					
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