Change of Tense - Change of Meaning – Global-Learning.ro
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Change of Tense – Change of Meaning

Let’s study two examples:

  1. When Anna came home, -> we cleaned the house.         (a)                                                                   

                                                    ->we were cleaning the house.  (b)

Cleaned vs. were cleaning

(a) When Anna came home, we cleaned the house. (Past Simple, Past Simple)

The first action -> Anna came

The second action (after Anna came) -> we cleaned.

(b) When Anna came home, we were cleaning the house. (Past Simple, Past Continuous)

  • The first action -> we were cleaning the houseThe second action, which interrupts the first one -> Anna came

When Ana came PAST Continuous nou

  1. Imagine you are talking with your colleagues. One of your colleagues says:

 “The report is not ready!” and he goes to finish the report.

a) Now, you tell somebody about it, repeating the information in the same moment: 

He said that the report is not ready (you don’t have to change anything) because the report isn’t finished.

b) But if you say:

He said that the report was not ready. It means that now the report is ready, you can say so, but only after a while.