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puzzle
Joined: 17 Oct 2005
Posts: 198
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 Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject: dressing or dressed |
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Dear teachers,
Could you please tell me the use of "dress up"?
walking around, I found the city was full of people _____ for the festival.
the answer is " dressed up " . I want to know if "dressing up" can be used here. Is there any difference?
Thank you! |
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2006
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 610
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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Of course "dressed up" is correct because the people you saw were already dressed (up) for the festival.
"dressing up" is continuous tense; so strictly speaking, unless the people were in the process of dressing up when you saw them, "dressing up" is not correct.
Having said that, sometimes native speakers do use "dressing up" in a situation like that. You can grammatically justify using "dressing up" by saying that maybe the people are repeatedly doing that over a period of several days, a continuing action.
But "dressed up" is better.
Sorry if I confused you! |
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