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#2 (permalink) Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:14 pm Did/Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon? Why not 'did'? |
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Hi Antonio,
If you use the simple past, it would be: Did it rain? In the test sentence the verb must be past continuous: ......... it raining when you left your office this afternoon?
Alan _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 13891 Location: UK
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#3 (permalink) Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:39 am Re: will it raining when you leave your office this afternoon? |
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| Alan wrote: |
Hi Antonio,
If you use the simple past, it would be: Did it rain? In the test sentence the verb must be past continuous: ......... it raining when you left your office this afternoon?
Alan |
Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon? is this conditional sentence? I do not know when to use this sentence in its context. I think: 'Will it raining when you leave your office this afternoon? ' (I Suppose Now is morning, and I ask my colleague in my office) |
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Baotet I'm new here and I like it ;-)

Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 18 Location: Halong
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#4 (permalink) Thu Dec 30, 2010 6:09 am Did/Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon? Why not 'did'? |
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Hi Baotet,
As Alan says, the sentence 'Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon?' is past continuous. Here the past continuous (was it raining) is used together with the past simple tense (you left). The past continuous refers to a "longer" or "background" action that was in progress; the past simple refers to a shorter action that interrupted the longer action, or happened in the middle of it. Here are some more examples of this use of the past continuous tense: He was walking to the office when he met John. She was drinking when the phone rang. While I was working in the garage, I heard a woman scream.
Find out about other uses of the past continuous tense here.
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To use 'will' turns this sentence into a sentence about the future. You would have to say, "Will it be raining when you leave the office this afternoon?" which is a very odd question, because no-one would be able to answer that with any certainty, as it hasn't happened yet. _________________ Cheers m' dears! |
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Beeesneees Language Coach

Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 18795 Location: UK, born and bred
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#5 (permalink) Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:13 am Did/Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon? Why not 'did'? |
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| Beeesneees wrote: |
Hi Baotet,
"Will it be raining when you leave the office this afternoon?" which is a very odd question, because no-one would be able to answer that with any certainty, as it hasn't happened yet. |
Hi Beeesneees, It had rained from 13:00 to 15:00. B left office to go home at 16:00. A asked B that 'Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon?'. B can answer: Yes, it was or No, it wasn't. it depend on he got rain or not. Thank you! |
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Baotet I'm new here and I like it ;-)

Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 18 Location: Halong
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#6 (permalink) Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:30 am Did/Was it raining when you left your office this afternoon? Why not 'did'? |
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Yes, but that is after the rain fell, using 'was it'. Using 'will it be' as you suggested earlier makes it an odd question. as it is a future event. _________________ Cheers m' dears! |
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Beeesneees Language Coach

Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 18795 Location: UK, born and bred
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| dancing on my grave | Its meaning? (The Dodo bird) |