Hi.
What is the right tense for the following sentence.
When I woke up this morning, the world looked magical. It---------(snow)all night.
had been snowing/was snowing
I know that past perfect continuous would be a right choice, but is past continuous true too?
Thanks
What is the right tense for the following sentence.
When I woke up this morning, the world looked magical. It---------(snow)all night.
had been snowing/was snowing
I know that past perfect continuous would be a right choice, but is past continuous true too?
Thanks
hrsaneiWhen I woke up this morning, the world looked magical. It was snowing all night.This is one of those cases that sounds correct as long as you don't stop and think about it very long. Personally, I consider it less than careful. We native speakers are likely to accept it as an adequate substitute for the more logical, I think,
It had been snowing all night.
__________
However, you might omit all night. It was snowing by itself means it was snowing at the time you woke up -- at the time the world looked magical -- so it's fine and completely logical if that's what you really mean.
But if you are trying to describe the case in which the snow had already stopped by the time you woke up, you can't just say It was snowing.
CJ
Comments
I prefer the former. It wasn't snowing when you woke up, it had been snowing before you woke up. Therefore, you should use the past perfect.
Perhaps both are possible, let's wait for native speakers to have their say.
When I woke up this morning, the world looked magical. It had been snowing all night.
As you cited because we are talking about an action that happened before another action in the past.
gramatically speaking, past perfect continuous should be used, but according to the definition of past continuous, in my opinion this tense can be used.
I wonder if it sounds weird to say.
When I woke up this morning, the world looked magical. It was snowing all night.
Thanks