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have a doubt with past perfect cont. examples. except the first example, all had no clause denoting duration of time.

for instance, "He had been drinking when the accident occured".
woudnt it be better if we express this in past cont.

"he was drinking when the accident occured."

Kindly,enlighten me if i missed some concept somewhere.
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Great job I used to study this way and was really beneficial !! Do advice everyone who has problems with tenses.
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Past Continuous Vs. Past Perfect Cont.

englishpage dot com/verbpage/pastperfectcontinuous
eslbase dot com/forum/viewtopic/t-624

On these links there is some info. regarding which Tense to use Past Cont. or Past Perfect Cont. and the subtle difference.

It seems Past Perfect Cont. gives more emphasis to the continuing action.
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Present Tense -
------------------------
The present conjugations of "to be" are - am, is, are.

The past continuous uses present conjugated forms of the auxiliary verb to be with the “ing”, form of the action verb.

Can someone please explain the above statement.
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Past Tense
--------------------
The sky diver __________________ (fall) very fast when the parachute opened.

Past P.
              before      
     subject  +  past perfect  +      when                +  subject  +  simple past 
               after 
since 
by the time 

The sky diver ____had fallen____ (fall) very fast when the parachute opened.
Is it that the Past Perfect form is grammatically correct but literally doesn't make sense.

Past Cont
    subject  +  past continuous  +  when  +  subject  +  simple past tense. . . 

The sky diver ____was falling__ (fall) very fast when the parachute opened.
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Future Tense -
-----------------------------

Rachel ____will join_________ (join) me in class when she returns.

Is it correct to say that this sentence takes a "simple future" instead of continuous (will be joining) since the actions represented by it are successive in nature?
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myside88
have a doubt with past perfect cont. examples. except the first example, all had no clause denoting duration of time.

for instance, "He had been drinking when the accident occured".
woudnt it be better if we express this in past cont.

"he was drinking when the accident occured."

Kindly,enlighten me if i missed some concept somewhere.

Here is the clarification I can think of -

past perfect contious is used for an action that began before certain point in past and continued upto that time. (check the diagram) where as Past continuous is used for an action that began before certain point in past and continue over that period (check the diagram).

So,
" He had been drinking when the accident occured"
is correct usage because after accident the person cannot keep drinking !!

But some time both may be used, in those cases the meaning of the sentence may vary based of usage.

For example -

He was drinking when I went to bar.
(Here we mean that, even after I went to bar he continued drinking )

He had been drinking when I went to bar.
(Here we mean that after I went to bar; He has stopped drinking)

Please correct me if I am wrong.
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ravsg
Present Tense -
------------------------
The present conjugations of "to be" are - am, is, are.

The past continuous uses present conjugated forms of the auxiliary verb to be with the “ing”, form of the action verb.

Can someone please explain the above statement.

The statement seems to be wrong because past continuous is formed by concatination of, past conjugated form of auxiliary verb to be (was, were) with the present participle (having etc).
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ravsg
Future Tense -
-----------------------------

Rachel ____will join_________ (join) me in class when she returns.

Is it correct to say that this sentence takes a "simple future" instead of continuous (will be joining) since the actions represented by it are successive in nature?

yes I think so because there is no sense of continuation in the action of the sentence, i.e., join here is distinct event which will happen after she returns in future.
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Hi,
Im a newbie in here, and this is my first post - please be kind :)

Im seriously struggling with Exercise 8. Can someone please help me :oops: - Whats wrong with:
(1) Steve, Lucy and I will go to Harvard University this fall - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(2) I will be starting classes by the time Rachel returns from Europe - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(3) Rachel will be joining me in class when she returns - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(4) I will think about Rachel until she returns safely - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(5) My cat will cry when I get home because she is hungry - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(6) Our dog, Rufus, will be travelling with us this summer - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(7) My letter will be arriving to Rita by the time I get there.
(8) The pilot said that it will have rained when we arrive in brazil.
(9) My sister will be marrying this coming June
(10) Tom will eat three hamburgers when he finishes this one. - I mean like I might have already eaten 5 hamburgers, and when I finish this one, I might have 3 more hamburgers - so, you will say that I will eat three hamburgers when I eat this one, right? (yes, Im very hungry),
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nageswara
ravsg
Future Tense -
-----------------------------

Rachel ____will join_________ (join) me in class when she returns.

Is it correct to say that this sentence takes a "simple future" instead of continuous (will be joining) since the actions represented by it are successive in nature?

yes I think so because there is no sense of continuation in the action of the sentence, i.e., join here is distinct event which will happen after she returns in future.

But if you look at one of the future continuous examples in the text on page 40 that says:

Madonna will be signing autographs after the concert

by the same token, this should be as simple as - Madonna will sign the autographs after the concert. I think there's no reason to use progressive here.
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ngh007
Hi,
Im a newbie in here, and this is my first post - please be kind :)

Im seriously struggling with Exercise 8. Can someone please help me :oops: - Whats wrong with:
(1) Steve, Lucy and I will go to Harvard University this fall - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(2) I will be starting classes by the time Rachel returns from Europe - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(3) Rachel will be joining me in class when she returns - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(4) I will think about Rachel until she returns safely - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(5) My cat will cry when I get home because she is hungry - kind of like example 1 in future simple - I will go to the store after lunch.
(6) Our dog, Rufus, will be travelling with us this summer - like examples in future continuous - Jack will be eating when I arrive.
(7) My letter will be arriving to Rita by the time I get there.
(8) The pilot said that it will have rained when we arrive in brazil.
(9) My sister will be marrying this coming June
(10) Tom will eat three hamburgers when he finishes this one. - I mean like I might have already eaten 5 hamburgers, and when I finish this one, I might have 3 more hamburgers - so, you will say that I will eat three hamburgers when I eat this one, right? (yes, Im very hungry),

Hi, it has been a while, and I'm not sure whether you still need help here. If you do, I'd suggest you go through the tense tutorial by Aristotle (it's free) to understand when which tense and aspect needs to be used.
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My uncle is arriving from Germany at 7:00 p.m.

Why is this correct?
The uncle is not currently arriving....
Shouldn't it be "My uncle will arrive from Germany at 7:00 pm"?
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