What is the difference between the PAST CONTINUOUS and the PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS? 

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Thank you for your kind words! Well done, You are correct! Good job!

The more appropriate option in this context is: "The passengers of the bus were sleeping when the accident happened." "Were sleeping" is used to describe an action that was ongoing at a specific point in the past, which fits the context of what the passengers were doing when the accident occurred.

Respected Ma'am, I do watch your videos religiously every day, because that you are the best of all grammarians across the globe admits no doubt.Ma,am,do please be kind enough to provide solution to the following Tense-based issue that different teachers have answered differently -Question --They reached the station.Then the train left.(Join the sentences using 'When '). My probable answers-(A) When they reached the station, the train left (B) When they had reached the station, the train left (The train left when they had reached the station.Ma,am, please let me know which options would be grammatically and semantically correct and which not.I keep awaiting your valued take on this with a growing sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness.

Thank you! 😃. Such kind words!

Great news! Thank you!

Thank you for your kind words!

My pleasure!

My pleasure 😇

Glad it was helpful!

You are very welcome

That's right! Well done!

Thank you so much 🙂

Glad to hear that

Glad you liked it!

You are very welcome

You're most welcome

Thanks!

Hi, I think your writing is great. I have only found a couple of things I would change. It was my first day of class. I finally found the right room. The room was already full of students. On one side of the room, the students were speaking to each other in Spanish. The others were speaking Japanese and some were conversing in Arabic. It SOUNDED like the United Nations. Some of the students, however, were sitting quietly by themselves. I chose an empty seat in the last row and sat down. AFTER a few minutes, the teacher walked into the room and all the multilingual conversation stopped. I hope that helps!

@@oxfordenglishnow Thanks a lot! I really appreciate your help!!

You are welcome!

In the given situation, the correct sentences to say would be: Where were you for so long? Where were you? These sentences are appropriate because you are asking about your friend's whereabouts during the time you were alone at their home. The other options are not as fitting for the context: Where had you been? - This implies a past action completed before another past action, but it doesn't fit well with the immediate situation of your friend arriving. Where have you been? - This suggests a more general inquiry about your friend's recent activities and might not capture the context of your waiting for them. Where had you been for so long? - Similar to option 3, it emphasizes a completed past action before another past action. Where have you been for so long? - While grammatically correct, it might sound a bit more accusatory or impatient than the situation warrants. It's a valid option but may convey a slightly different tone.

@@oxfordenglishnow Very nicely explained ! Thank you so much !

My pleasure. We can say, « We stopped by the house where my mother lived to see her. »

So nice of you

Right answer

It's my pleasure

Most welcome!

You are welcome!

The given sentence is in the simple present passive voice.

B is correct because the past continuous cannot hold a span of time with for or since. I hope that helps! 😊

The sentence "The cat had been sleeping when its owner came home" does not necessarily imply that the sleeping was interrupted by the owner. Instead, it describes a past state or action (the cat sleeping) that was ongoing or continuous at a specific point in the past (when the owner came home). The use of the past perfect progressive tense ("had been sleeping") indicates that the cat was already in the state of sleeping before the owner came home. It doesn't explicitly state whether the sleeping was interrupted or not. It simply sets up the sequence of events: the cat was sleeping, and then its owner came home. Whether the cat continued sleeping after the owner's arrival is not specified by this sentence alone.

Hi, 2 good sentences. The first shows that it is still raining, the second that it is no longer raining. 😊

Hello to Brazil !

I know, sorry. I will try to be more consistent!

@@oxfordenglishnow been your subscriber for more than 4 years. Thanks for all your quality contents.

My pleasure!

My pleasure!

Your observations are quite insightful, and you've touched upon some interesting points regarding the use of past continuous and past perfect continuous tenses. "I was eating all day so I wasn't hungry." In this case, the past continuous is used to describe an ongoing action (eating all day) that was happening at some point in the past. It doesn't necessarily mean you couldn't eat when you weren't hungry; rather, it emphasizes the continuous nature of the action. The focus here is on the duration of eating, and the contrast with not being hungry is just additional information. "She was painting the room when she was taken to the hospital." This sentence is a bit ambiguous and might benefit from clarification. It implies that she was painting the room when the action of being taken to the hospital occurred. If you want to convey a clearer sequence of events, you might say, "She had been painting the room when she was taken to the hospital." This brings in the past perfect continuous to emphasize the duration of the painting activity before the hospitalization. Regarding prepositions, your general observation is correct. Past continuous is often used with prepositions like "while" or "when," while past perfect continuous is commonly used with prepositions like "by," "since," "for," or "before." In the case of indicating the duration of an action, past perfect continuous is particularly useful. For example, "She had been studying for three hours before the exam." Here, the past perfect continuous helps express the duration of the studying activity leading up to the specific point in the past (the exam).

​@@oxfordenglishnow, "I was eating all day so I wasn't hungry". Because of "so" we can say, when first action is the reason, second - the result. Wait, here isn't word "when", so this action can be at the same time and/or one by one. We don't know. So, why we can't say that to indicate the reason and the result? "I had been eating all day so wasn't hungry". We can say that the first act was MUST be before the second act and POSSIBLY during the second act. And supposedly "all day" is the duration of the first act before the second act. So I wasn't hungry the NEXT day, not the day I ate. Or does this logic only work when "before", "by" are used, but then why would Past Perfect Continuous be used here? And can we say that purely logically the sentence "She was painting the room when she was taken to the hospital" is not correct, because during the second short action the first long action is not performed, but people say so to simplify the sentence? I was just making a table of tenses for myself and looking for materials from all over the internet.

Or do I just need to memorize that for sentences with a reason (long action) in the past instead of past continuous, past perfect continuous is used as an exception, then "I was eating all day so wasn't hungry" is not correct, but "I was eating all day and wasn't hungry" is correct.

....where my mother was living....where=means her place. So she is still living there😊

The sentence "We stopped by the house where my mother was living" is in the past tense, and it doesn't necessarily imply that your mother still lives there. The past continuous tense, indicated by "was living," is often used to describe an ongoing action or situation at a specific point in the past. In this case, it means that at the time of the visit, your mother was living in that house. The use of the past continuous tense doesn't provide information about the current situation. It simply describes the state of affairs at a particular moment in the past. To determine whether your mother still lives there, you would need additional context or information from the present. The sentence itself, as written, doesn't make any claims about the current status of your mother's residence.

@@oxfordenglishnow Thank you

Went. Completed activity in the past. I hope that helps!

@@oxfordenglishnow Thankyou ma'am

​@@oxfordenglishnowI believe that the past perfect emphasizes the completion of the action and the past simple needs a specific time indication to use it. So in this case the past perfect is the correct tense. Am I right??

That's correct. Well done!

Correct! well done!

Thanks

Correct! Well done!

Thank you 🙏🏻

That's correct. Well done!

Hi, I disagree, he could be still living there in sentence B. A is wrong because the past continuous cannot hold the span of time with it, so we have to use the past perfect continuous. I hope that helps.

Hi! 😊

That's correct! Well done!

Correct! Well done!

Correct! well done!

B is the correct answer. The past continuous cannot hold the span of time with it, so we have to use the past perfect continuous. Also here we are emphasising an action that happened before another in the past. I hope that helps. 😊

Correct. Well done!