3
I would expect "ruled" when speaking of the length of time of a monarch's reign. The "was ruling" would be limited to a particular portion of the lands so ruled. "By his twenty-third year King X was ruling over Lower Brat in addition to the traditional lands of the Phart. In total he ruled for nearly forty years." (entirely ...
3
The choice of the various aspectual constructions in English (perfect, continuous, "future", and their combinations) is rarely rule-governed. It mostly corresponds neither to any rule, nor to any objective difference, but purely to how the speaker is choosing to present the temporal focus and relationships.
When you use a perfect contruction you ...
3
Where have you been when you caught it
If your teacher suggested you use this version, you should stop learning from him/her.
The sentence is ungrammatical. "When you caught it" tells you that the situation took place entirely in the past, in which case, the present perfect is excluded. It should be "where were you when you caught it".
&...
3
Answering questions:
A: Did you plant that tree?
B: My father planted it.
Short form: No, I didn't.
Short form plus extra information: No, I didn't. My father planted it.
Answering by using a declarative sentence: My father planted it.
2
The idea that "we use past perfect in a sequence of events to show that the action expressed with that tense was before the other one" is an unhelpful simplification.
We use the past perfect when we are referring to an event from the perspective of a later time in the past. That later time may be another event, but (especially in narrative) there ...
2
I’ve caught a big fish.
While not the part of the conversation you asked about, this is non-standard.
I’ve been fishing. I caught a big fish.
This would be a better way to say it
2
It's usual to use the past tense when referring to the length of time that somebody did something.
He worked for more than eight hours without a stop.
She ruled the country for 30 years.
They swam for several hours to reach the shore.
But when you are looking back on a period or an event, especially when you are telling a story and trying to bring events ...
1
All the examples of past progressive you give are used to describe a situation when another action took place. This may not be obvious in example 2, but it seems to set the stage for further description of what happened in the 1960s.
In the dinosaur example, past progressive could be used like this:
The dinosaurs were still roaming the earth 40 million years ...
1
Possible dialogue using:
"Where have you been?" is it "I've been to the cafe. I had lunch" or "I was at the cafe. I had lunch"? – [That was the question in a comment from the OP.]
Q: Where have you been?
A: I've been out. With friends. What's it to you?
Q: I was just wondering....no need to be grumpy.
Q: Where have you been?
A: ...
1
"Did you..." questions can always be answered yes/no (a 'closed question').
It isn't uncommon for the answerer to give more information though, which is what has happened in this case. The answerer has missed out saying yes or no, because it can be inferred from the information they gave — his father planted it, therefore he obviously didn't.
It's ...
1
"Supposed" is much better than "was supposing".
This might be better still:
When we talked last Monday, I thought I would have a lot of free time
this week to prepare the documents. However, I turned out to be quite
busy.
You could say "was supposing", or "was thinking" if the thought was interrupted at the time:
...
1
"I lived here for twenty years" means that you are no longer living there.
"I have lived" and "I have been living here for twenty years" both mean that you are still currently living there. It is twenty years and counting.
'Moving house' is, idiomatically, the process of exchanging one house for another, seamlessly. If there ...
1
The past perfect is optional in your example. The simple past would be equally acceptable.
You would be more likely to use the past perfect if the business had closed or if she had since retired or died. Here the proof is in the past while the conclusions remain current.
The simple past might fit better if she was still running the business.
There are no ...
1
I would argue that "Would you like..." is past tense, but "present tense" is perhaps a defensible answer. In reality, the question isn't entirely a sensible one, so in practice, the correct answer would be whatever answer the examiner is expecting or whatever answer you have been taught as part of your course.
What is tense?
Tense is ...
1
"Shew" is just an archaic form (archaic spelling) of "show". I gather the previous respondent has not read the King James Bible, Shakespeare (in the original spelling), and other sources older than the 18th century. Which is not a criticism, because few people do nowadays. But you can also find it in dictionaries.
Full disclosure: I have ...
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