Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[cran12]

Dear teachers, in what tense it is more correct to use the verb *admire* in the following sentence:
We (admire\ have admired\ are admiring\ were admiring) the painting on the staircase as we came up.
Thank you.

[angelwing]

With the choices you gave... I'd say the best is "were admiring", since it's a past participle. The second part of the sentence has "came up", "came" is a past verb, so you choose a main verb that's also past.

Norm
_________________
"They play in the devil's key
An endless symphony
I even hear it now
And I listen to the music
Beautiful music
Yes I listen to the music
Beautiful music"

[KazAV]

In which case "we admired" would be correct since both are then in the simple past.

We admired the painting on the staircase as we came up.

[eleruen]

anyway

'came' is past (simple), therefore you can use the past continuous here.
Past continuous is something that occured in the past, but occured for a while...maybe you looked at the paintings for a few minutes. Past continuous always has the structure:

past "be" + verbstem- ing (continous form)

Past continuous has several uses. Here, it is used to explain two simultaneous actions..........looking at the painting and coming up the stairs.

You can also use 'admired', but that is not available in the choices.