Well, guys, please consider the following:
- When he arrived, she was repairing the bike.
- When he arrived, she had been repairing the bike.
Which one is better? Or do they have their own meanings?
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Sign up to join this communityWell, guys, please consider the following:
Which one is better? Or do they have their own meanings?
I don't find any grammatical errors here. But, I think the sense made is slightly different in each sentence.
"was repairing" concerns only the point of arrival of 'he'. That is, what the person was doing at that point of time.
"had been repairing" talks about how the action was being done for quite sometime even before the arrival of the said 'he'.
Hope this makes it clearer.
Both are grammatically correct, with slightly different meanings. "had been repairing" has more impact or stress on the action of "repairing the bike" than "was repairing".
Though both the sentences are grammaticlly correct i prefer the first sentence
"When she arrived , he was repairing " is more natural because the activity was continuing in the past at the point
we usually do not use past perfect continuous without a time phrase so when she arrived, he had been repairing the bike for half an hour is more natural look at the sentence: The umpire inspected the pitch at11Am. The sun was shining but the pitch was damp because it had been raining Here past perfect can be used without a time phrase because activity happened well before the time of pitch inspection