English tenses/help

Cours gratuits > Forum > Forum anglais: Questions sur l'anglais || En bas

[POSTER UNE NOUVELLE REPONSE] [Suivre ce sujet]

English tenses/help
Message de seathas posté le 04-11-2015 à 07:42:35 (S | E | F)
Good evening everyone.

I want to know why in the following sentence we use Past + PP and not Past + Past continuous
Tammy looked at the clock and realized she had worked for half an hour (correct)
I want to know why this one is not correct (Tammy looked at the clock and realized she was working for half an hour)
I want to know also, why we don't add 'that' :Tammy looked at the clock and realized that she had worked for half an hour

Another sentence I wrote was ( Sometimes, life plays games on us and we end up with a person we would never have thought we will end up with )
and my teacher corrected it ( Sometimes, life plays games on us and we end up with a person we would never have thought we would end up with) but I don't understand why he replaced will by would.

Thank you for your time.
Please if someone has a list that shows the usage of in/on I would be happy to have it.

-------------------
Modifié par lucile83 le 04-11-2015 08:15

Réponse: English tenses/help de gerondif, postée le 04-11-2015 à 16:06:26 (S | E)
Hello,
You say:
I want to know why in the following sentence we use Past + PP and not Past + Past continuous
So, it should have been:
Tammy looked at the clock and realized she had been working for half an hour
Yours was correct too but was more a description of a fact than a description of an action that had been going on for some time.

Of course, if you think in French (elle travaillait depuis une demi-heure), you might wonder why you can't use "She was working".

Look at this sentence:
She was working when the phone rang.Correct.
If you add a tense complement introduced by for or since, you will have to "upgrade" that past continuous into:
She had been working for half an hour, since two o'clock, when the phone rang and interrupted her work.

( Sometimes, life plays games on us and we end up with a person we would never have thought we would end up with) Well, it is a simple question of logic in the use of times.

I don't think I will meet her.
I didn't think I would meet her.
I had never thought I would meet her one day.

Réponse: English tenses/help de seathas, postée le 04-11-2015 à 23:12:42 (S | E)
Thank you. but I still don't really understand

-------------------
Modifié par lucile83 le 04-11-2015 23:17

Réponse: English tenses/help de traviskidd, postée le 05-11-2015 à 01:30:31 (S | E)
Hello.

"She had worked for half an hour" - elle avait accompli le fait de travailler pendant une demi-heure.
"She had been working for half an hour" - elle avait passé la dernière demi-heure en travaillant; ça faisait une demi-heure qu'elle travaillait

"That" is optional when referring to a (grammatical) object or when introducing a dependent clause:
- "There is the cake (that) I want to eat."
- "I know (that) you want to eat that cake."

As for "would", in addition to being the conditional, it also serves as the "past future":
- He said, "I will meet her tomorrow." --> He said he would meet her the following/next day.

See you.

Réponse: English tenses/help de seathas, postée le 05-11-2015 à 23:33:39 (S | E)
Ah thank you so much!! to all of you. Now I understand better.

-------------------
Modifié par lucile83 le 06-11-2015 07:30

[POSTER UNE NOUVELLE REPONSE] [Suivre ce sujet]

Cours gratuits > Forum > Forum anglais: Questions sur l'anglais