Teacher Discussion Forums

I've spent the last few days teaching my class of adult students the Simple Past and Past Progressive tenses and it seemed that they had grasped the concept until we stumbled upon the following example. I found it difficult trying to provide a clear explanation as to why the Past Progressive is used instead of the Simple Past in the following:

Example:

Q: I'm sure you met Anne Jones at the party last night.
A: I don't remember her. What was she wearing?

My student asked why the response is "what was she wearing?" and not "what did she wear"?

Is there a clear way to explain this???

magpou wrote:I've spent the last few days teaching my class of adult students the Simple Past and Past Progressive tenses and it seemed that they had grasped the concept until we stumbled upon the following example. I found it difficult trying to provide a clear explanation as to why the Past Progressive is used instead of the Simple Past in the following:

Example:

Q: I'm sure you met Anne Jones at the party last night.
A: I don't remember her. What was she wearing?

My student asked why the response is "what was she wearing?" and not "what did she wear"?

Is there a clear way to explain this???

Let me take a stab at it, but there are no guarantees! I also teach the difference between Past Progressive and Simple Past to my adult students. I tell them the first two example types are the easy ones. Then I teach them sentences of the idea, "He was eating dinner when the phone rang." It's so nice to be able to show the interruption, and how something was ongoing when the second action occurred.

Then I teach them sentences of the type, "I was eating while he was taking a shower." This one is also nice because it is clear that two actions were ongoing at the same time in the past.

Then, alas, I get to the third set of sentences. In this group, the time sort of interrupts the action that was occuring. This includes sentences like, "What were you doing at 7:00 yesterday?" "I was eating." or "Why didn't you come to the meeting?" "I was playing tennis." I think the latter sentence has the understanding of "I didn't come to the meeting because I was playing tennis at the time of the meeting." (Don't I wish )

I think your example,
Q: I'm sure you met Anne Jones at the party last night.
A: I don't remember her. What was she wearing?

fits in this idea. (I don't remember her. What was she wearing when she was at the party. Surely she had the clothes on before and after she left )

Well I don't know if this helped any, but I'm running out of time because my class starts in 6 minutes. Luckily it's in a computer room.

Lorikeet:

Thanks for trying......your last example almost explains it but still doesn't quite get us out of the dilemma. e.g. I need a satisfactory explanation to justify why the reply can't be, "what did she wear?".

Magpou

I would add, to the already excellent explanation given by Lorikeet, that in your example we are dealing with a continuous state of affairs or action during which something of a very short duration happened: She wore that dress ALL evening, but you would have met her only during some limited part of the entire time.

Hi!

I had the same discussion with a course last week.

I pointed out she/he will change the clothing eventually.....

Thus the usage of the past progressive.

This tense does not exist in Germany....

Best wishes
Siân

Magpou, I have the same question! I've thought about it and have come up with a possible explanation: It seems to me that you use the simple past when the event occurred within a general time in the past (What did you do yesterday? I went for a walk in the park), and the past continuous for an event that occurred at a specific time in the past (What were you doing yesterday afternoon? I was walking in the park). So, as for your question, it's "what was she wearing?", because it refers to a specific time (during the party). What do you guys think? Does it work?

Yes 100 points

Siân

The point, which we often fail to grasp, is that the use of one form does not necessarily mean the other is wrong. Past Simple and Past Continuous are both possible in this context, the difference is in emphasis. The Continous aspect, whether Present or Past, has the effect of placing one, as it were, inside the action. The Continuous here has a "backgrounding" effect which is not there if you use the Past Simple.

All too often we, as teachers, bark up the wrong tree by suggesting that there is only one form you can use in a given situation. In fact, we have choices, and it's far more insightful to illustrate the differences between the two. So, the answer to the question "Why can't you say What did she wear ?" is "Actually, you can but the meaning is slightly different."