guzhao67  +  849907 Thu, 06 Aug 09 02:39 PM in the film Unforgiven, played by Clint Eastwood (1992), before the hero pulls the trigger to kill Little Bill, the latter (Little Bill) says:"please, I was building a house". My question is: semantically, is the house being built but not finished OR he wants to build a house but the plan is only in preparation and he doesn't begin building the house at all? thank you guzhao67 Joined on Mon, Oct 20 2008 New Member 41 Past Tenses

	Clive  +  849914 Thu, 06 Aug 09 02:44 PM Hi, It could be either, although, as you know, Little Bill was actually in the process of building one.   I'm happy to know that, in all that excitement and violence, you were still thinking about English grammar.   Little Bill did not say 'Please'. Pleading was not in his nature. You can check the actual dialogue here.   Clive      Clive Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004 Canada Veteran Member 29,585 El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo Video, Languages

	Mr Wordy  +  849916 Thu, 06 Aug 09 02:51 PM It could mean either. He could be in the process of actually building the house, or he could be planning to build it. Only the context will determine which is intended. The former meaning is a more literal interpretation of what the words say, but "was verb-ing" is used colloquially with the latter meaning. Mr Wordy Joined on Tue, May 27 2008 Senior Member 2,359 Native British English speaker Context