Hi

I have a few questions.

1. We were having a chat while we were waiting. IT IS BETTER TO WRITE  "We had a chat while we were waiting" Are both sentences OK, or not?

2. Is it possible to say: The instructions to this exercise are saying that you have to... or The instructions to this exercise say that you have to... I THINK THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT.

3. You better find out what do you have to do or You better find out what you have to do.  IN MY OPINION THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT.

4. What does this sentence mean: They stack the odds 'til we take to the street ....

Thank You

Goodman wrote:

Newguest wrote: Hi I have a few questions. 1. We were having a chat while we were waiting. IT IS BETTER TO WRITE  "We had a chat while we were waiting" Are both sentences OK, or not? 2. Is it possible to say: The instructions to this exercise are saying that you have to... or The instructions to this exercise specifies that you have to... I THINK THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 3. You better find out what do you have to do or You better find out what you have to do.  IN MY OPINION THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 4. What does this sentence mean: They stack the odds 'til we take to the street .... make the odds to your favor / take advantage of the situation Thank You

Hi

As for the first one; why is it bad to say "we were having a chat"?

As for the second question, I was just interested if it's better to use present continuous or present simple tense in such cases. So, according to you I shouldn't write "The instructions say ...," but rather "specify"?

Newguest wrote:

Goodman wrote:  Newguest wrote: Hi I have a few questions. 1. We were having a chat while we were waiting. IT IS BETTER TO WRITE  "We had a chat while we were waiting" Are both sentences OK, or not? 2. Is it possible to say: The instructions to this exercise are saying that you have to... or The instructions to this exercise specifies that you have to... I THINK THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 3. You better find out what do you have to do or You better find out what you have to do.  IN MY OPINION THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 4. What does this sentence mean: They stack the odds 'til we take to the street .... make the odds to your favor / take advantage of the situation Thank You Hi As for the first one; why is it bad to say "we were having a chat"? As for the second question, I was just interested if it's better to use present continuous or present simple tense in such cases. So, according to you I shouldn't write "The instructions say ...," but rather "specify"?

I didn't say it's bad or wrong. Many times we will encounter this type of questions. In my opinion, “we were having a chat while waiting” = you were waiting for something, and then you met someone while standing in line, and you started a conversation with him/ her. So the conversation is something that happened while you were standing in line. Logically, I prefer to use simple past to describe the “chat” and past progressive for “waiting” which was a longer event.

That’s my take.

Use the continuous whenver you want to emphasize the duration of an activity or to show that somthing happened while the first one was taking place.

We chatted while we waited is fine.

We chatted as we were waiting is okay.

We were just chatting as we waited when suddenly... is also fine

We were just chatting as we were wiating when suddenly... is also fine - it implies you waited for more than a few moments.

Newguest wrote:

Hi I have a few questions. 1. We were having a chat while we were waiting. IT IS BETTER TO WRITE  "We had a chat while we were waiting" Are both sentences OK, or not? 2. Is it possible to say: The instructions to this exercise are saying that you have to... or The instructions to this exercise say that you have to... I THINK THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 3. You better find out what do you have to do or You better find out what you have to do.  IN MY OPINION THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT. 4. What does this sentence mean: They stack the odds 'til we take to the street .... Thank You