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past tense

by simone88 » Tue May 08, 2012 2:44 am
If I have an action that began in the past and finished in the past later (but didn't happen i a precise moment) what tense should I use?
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Tue May 08, 2012 6:10 am
It sounds like you want past continuous: I was studying when the phone rang.
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by simone88 » Tue May 08, 2012 10:26 am
Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:It sounds like you want past continuous: I was studying when the phone rang.
so in the following phrase:
"rulers were discussing from 1990 to 1995 about a law that was approved in 2000"
we shouldn't change the underlined part with have been discussing or have discussed?
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Tue May 08, 2012 2:19 pm
In that case, we have an action that follows the discussion (the approval of the law in 2000), so using present perfect (which occurs at an indeterminate time before the present) doesn't work.
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by simone88 » Thu May 10, 2012 2:24 am
Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:In that case, we have an action that follows the discussion (the approval of the law in 2000), so using present perfect (which occurs at an indeterminate time before the present) doesn't work.
so, what should the sentence be like?
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