'When' with Past Tense
2023-10-21
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1Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question about using "when" with past simple or past continuous tenses.
2Hi,
3I'm a learner from China. Could you please help me with the following question?
4Is the sentence The good news came when we weren't expecting it grammatically correct?
5If it is correct, how can we understand the following rule:
6"As a general rule, you should use "while" in a clause with a continuous action, using a verb in a continuous tense.
7Use "when" in a clause with a single action, using a simple past or present tense."
8Many thanks,
9Jinye
10Thank you for writing, Jinye. Keep up the good work learning English with us!
11The sentence "The good news came when we weren't expecting it" is grammatically acceptable.
12As for "when" and "while" we answered a question about How to Use 'When' and 'While' in an earlier Ask a Teacher program.
13We explained that some experts call both words "subordinating conjunctions" in some cases.
14This means they signal how pieces of information are related to one another.
15And we shared that general rule to give an idea of how they are used in English.
16Let's look at these two examples:
17When the phone rang, I was making dinner.
18While I was making dinner, the phone rang.
19"While" and "when" both relate to time although "while" usually signals that two events are happening at the same time.
20Another issue to consider is how people use language in real life.
21Sometimes, the real-life use of language does not seem to equal textbook rules.
22For example, many native users of English use "when" with continuous action.
23In fact, "when" is used with past progressive more often than "while" in the Corpus of Contemporary American English.
24Here are some example sentences from the corpus.
25When I was growing up, I wanted to be a cowboy.
26I was thinking about her when we were talking.
27When he was running for President, Obama gave electrifying speeches.
28Please let us know if this explanation has helped you, Jinye.
29Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
30And that's Ask a Teacher.
31I'm Gena Bennett.
1Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question about using "when" with past simple or past continuous tenses. 2Question 3Hi, 4I'm a learner from China. Could you please help me with the following question? 5Is the sentence The good news came when we weren't expecting it grammatically correct? 6If it is correct, how can we understand the following rule: 7"As a general rule, you should use "while" in a clause with a continuous action, using a verb in a continuous tense. Use "when" in a clause with a single action, using a simple past or present tense." 8Many thanks, 9Jinye 10Answer 11Thank you for writing, Jinye. Keep up the good work learning English with us! 12The sentence "The good news came when we weren't expecting it" is grammatically acceptable. 13When and while 14As for "when" and "while" we answered a question about How to Use 'When' and 'While' in an earlier Ask a Teacher program. 15We explained that some experts call both words "subordinating conjunctions" in some cases. This means they signal how pieces of information are related to one another. And we shared that general rule to give an idea of how they are used in English. 16Let's look at these two examples: 17When the phone rang, I was making dinner. 18While I was making dinner, the phone rang. 19"While" and "when" both relate to time although "while" usually signals that two events are happening at the same time. 20Using English in real life 21Another issue to consider is how people use language in real life. Sometimes, the real-life use of language does not seem to equal textbook rules. 22For example, many native users of English use "when" with continuous action. In fact, "when" is used with past progressive more often than "while" in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Here are some example sentences from the corpus. 23When I was growing up, I wanted to be a cowboy. 24I was thinking about her when we were talking. 25When he was running for President, Obama gave electrifying speeches. 26Please let us know if this explanation has helped you, Jinye. 27Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. 28And that's Ask a Teacher. 29I'm Gena Bennett. 30Gena Bennett wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.