I felt this sentence that uses participial construction is unnatural but I don't know why.
She visiting my house, I was studying English.
Is that because of the verb, visit? I'm non-native speaker.
-
I'd like to know about the participial construction in this sentence so I'd like you to teach me about that particularly. – 02l4 Dec 21 '16 at 8:24
If you use the present progressive tense, the "to be" verb is required.
She was visiting my house.
As written these two actions are disconnected. If you want to connect them in some way you need to relate them to each other, for example:
She was visiting my house while I was studying English.
She was visiting my house after I finished studying English.
She came to visit me as I was studying English.
And so on.
-
Thank you for your comment! so maybe it's useless to use participial construction in this kind of sentence? – 02l4 Dec 21 '16 at 8:20
-
For example, Can I change this sentence into the participial construction one? When she was visiting my house, I was studying English. – 02l4 Dec 21 '16 at 8:22
-
@02l4 Yes, exactly. That helps relate the two actions. However the present progressive tense indicates ongoing action, but "when" suggests a single moment in time, so here the simple past is better "When she visited my house, I was studying English." – Andrew Dec 21 '16 at 14:28
