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  1. When I was playing she was cooking.
  2. When I was playing she had been cooking.

  1. Shows that two actions started at the same time and continued for some time simultaneously.

  2. Shows that two actions were happening at the same time but also shows that cooking started at least just a little earlier than playing.
    After all, both examples are valid, yes?

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  • I would suggest using a comma to separate the two clauses.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jun 4 at 11:00
  • (1) doesn't necessarily mean that the actions started at the same time, just that they were happening together.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 4 at 11:05

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Sentence 2 is wrong. Sentence 1 could do with a bit of a tweak.

The narration of past events can indeed be done using different tenses, for example:

  • I was cooking when she knocked at the door
  • I had been cooking for an hour when I heard her knocking at the door.

Note how I said "had been cooking for an hour" - that doesn't mean that the cooking has stopped, just that an hour had passed already when the event occurred. The knock at the door is an event - a point in time - while the cooking is something ongoing. The event occurs during the time period.

But in your example, you're not speaking about a fixed event happening during a period - you're saying that two things were happening at the same time - one person playing, the other cooking. You need the tenses to match.

In sentence 1, the tenses match; however, if your purpose is to show the two ongoing activities were coinciding, it might be better if you said:

While I was playing she was cooking.

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  • Ok thank you so much.
    – Adam
    Commented Jun 4 at 9:20
  • 2
    @Adam I think you should start upvoting answers that helped you, and maybe accepting one or two answers that were the most useful. Just click on the arrow that points upwards and click on the grey checkmark below the voting buttons. When the grey checkmark is clicked, it turns green, the answerer is immediately award 15 reputation points (not that Astralbee really needs any!) But most importantly of all, it's a way of saying "Thank you" and it's telling the community you appreciate their efforts.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jun 4 at 11:05
  • 1
    Yeah you are right
    – Adam
    Commented Jun 4 at 11:27

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