meg2589  +  67763 Sat, 15 Jan 05 07:03 AM Timeline for "He was studying." is: past.............present moment............future And timeline for "I was playing baseball." is: past.............present moment.............future But how will we draw the timeline if both actions were happening at the same time. For example, "He was studying while I was playing baseball." Please answer my question and help me drawing the timeline for the sentence given above. Thanks. meg2589 Joined on Thu, Jul 22 2004 Japan Junior Member 77

	just the truth  +  67767 Sat, 15 Jan 05 07:17 AM Hi Meg, What does the X at "present moment" represent? How about this? past.............present moment.............future just the truth Joined on Mon, Dec 27 2004 Regular Member 849

	Casi  +  67782 Sat, 15 Jan 05 08:05 AM Since the events 'was studying' and 'was playing' took place in the past, the xxxxx's should be placed under the term "past", like this, past..........present moment............future xxxxx = 'I was studying' As for the two events ocurring at the same time, try: past..........present moment............future xxxxx = 'I was playing baseball' yyyyy = 'He was studying' Casi Joined on Sat, Sep 25 2004 Regular Member 547

	meg2589  +  67800 Sat, 15 Jan 05 10:16 AM Is there any other way to show both the actions on one timeline? I tried to search the internet for timeline chart but it's only for one action, not parallel. X means now or present moment. x means some action happened, xxxxx means action took place for some time period. Can I show it like this: past..............present moment............future l.....xxxxx..l (if you remember we studied something like this in our physics subject - serial or parallel resistance in a circuit diagram ) I don't know if it will work for this example or not. meg2589

	Mister Micawber  +  67816 Sat, 15 Jan 05 01:55 PM They're both happening at the same time, Meg, so I see no alternative to drawing them in two parallel rows, one above the other: (don't know it I can do this...) 'He was studying while I was playing baseball'-- unspecified past XXX XXX 'He is studying while I am playing baseball'-- present moment XXX XXX 'He will be studying while I am playing baseball' 'He will be studying, while I will be playing baseball'-- unspecified future XXX XXX Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 30,842 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

	Casi  +  67911 Sun, 16 Jan 05 03:58 AM I love your recent diagram, and I also agree with you and the other posters. It's a tough call to make. As an alternative, you could always try something like using x for one event and y for the other event: past.......present moment.........future You could also use an equals sign (=) to show that one event (x1) shares the same timeline as the other event (x2): past.........present moment.........future Casi