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Help with past continuous vs past simple

Posted: 24 Jan 2017, 07:02
by bluetooth
Thank you.

The sentence is:

Doing my housework today I felt so tired, but after I was done I would rest...

The question is:

Why .ing, past continuoiu, in the first part of the sentence but 'was', past simple, in the second part

Re: Help with past continuous vs past simple

Posted: 31 Jan 2017, 11:08
by Lingo
Hi bluetooth,

Interesting example here. The first clause in the sentence is actually not past continuous. In order to make a past continuous clause, we need some form of the verb "be" and the -ing form of a verb.

Here, the clause "Doing my housework" is missing the verb "be", so it is a non-finite clause. Non-finite clauses add background to and are considered not as important as the independent clause to which they are "attached".