English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
A: Do you know how we spent the afternoon?
B: How?
A: All of us chatted away in the kitchen while Ben’s mother showed me how to cook his favorite food.
B: Great. Sounds like you had a fun time there, didn’t you?
The answer key says that we have to use past simple tense “chatted away and showed”. However why don’t we use past continuous? Is it possible to use other tenses?
For example: All of us were chatting away in the kitchen while Ben’s mother was showing me how to cook his favorite food.
I agree with the answer key. The past continuous sounds weird to me here.
I think you have to ask the question using the past continuous in order to answer in the past continuous.
B: What were you guys doing this afternoon?
A: All of us were chatting away in the kitchen while Ben’s mother was showing me how to cook his favorite food.
B: Great. Sounds like you were having a fun time there, weren't you?
