naveenshan wrote:In his final address to the nation, President Nixon said that his decision to resign was because of a lack of a base of support in the Congress.

1.he was resigning because he was lacking a base of support in the Congress.
2.he was resigning because he lacked a base of support in the Congress.

explanation tells me that 2 is right, my doubt is -- if we use he lacked ( past tense ) then this means he enjoys a base of support today.. which is wrong. So I feel 1 is right ..

Please suggest

2nd is more appropriate because lacked is simple past i.e very recent past and was lacking means that it was earlier not the recent one

for example :
I was doing this thing when he came ------> here "I was doing" happened in more past
I did this -----> it means u have recently completed the thing

great.. I missed out on the word "was".. thank you..

aspirant2011 wrote:

naveenshan wrote:In his final address to the nation, President Nixon said that his decision to resign was because of a lack of a base of support in the Congress.

1.he was resigning because he was lacking a base of support in the Congress.
2.he was resigning because he lacked a base of support in the Congress.

explanation tells me that 2 is right, my doubt is -- if we use he lacked ( past tense ) then this means he enjoys a base of support today.. which is wrong. So I feel 1 is right ..

Please suggest

2nd is more appropriate because lacked is simple past i.e very recent past and was lacking means that it was earlier not the recent one

for example :
I was doing this thing when he came ------> here "I was doing" happened in more past
I did this -----> it means u have recently completed the thing

Hi,
I am not sure of this. My take on this would be:
President Nixon said that he was resigning because he was lacking a base of support in the Congress simultaneous actions. This is equivalent to:
President Nixon said, "I am resigning because I am lacking a base of support in the Congress"
This means resigning are lacking are simultaneous actions.

In his final address to the nation, President Nixon said that he was resigning because he lacked a base of support in the Congress. This is equivalent to:
President Nixon said, "I am resigning because I lack a base of support in the Congress"
This means he is resigning because he lacks(not at the same time of resigning, as a fact he mentions in general) support.

This is what I feel. I will be very happy if experts can chip in and comment on this question.

Though I am satisfied with aspirant2011 I would like an expert to comment on this.. I am looking for a grammer rule here which I can use for other questions..

naveenshan wrote:Though I am satisfied with aspirant2011 I would like an expert to comment on this.. I am looking for a grammer rule here which I can use for other questions..

I would also appreciate, if anybody could explain - thx! I don't really understand why "was lacking" is wrong...