LouiST Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Awkward moment when.... tense
When I'm bored I often read 'Teenager Posts' (I'm allowed- I am a teenager;) haha) and I always ask myself the same question: When do I use present continuous and when present simple after 'when'?
Nothing to do if it's happening now. Teenager Posts are general 'facts' of a teenager's life.
Take a look at these examples:
1) 'The awkward moment when you're acting very weird in front of your crush.'
2) 'The awkward moment when you're trying to get over someone you never even dated.'
3) 'That annoying moment when your best friend is getting close to the one whom you don't like.'
4) 'That crazy 5 seconds, when you stand up too fast, and you either go blind, or extremely dizzy.'
5) 'The feeling of 'epicness' when you draw a straight line without a ruler'
6) 'That moment when you hear a song and every world describes your situation perfectly.'
7) 'You know when you walk into a room and forget why you went in there? That's God playing Sims, he just cancelled your action.'
8) 'That feeling you get when you know you are forgetting something, but you don't know what.'
9) 'The awkward moment when you put something on Facebook that you think is super funny and nobody likes it.'
I don't get it. It's not with moment, is it? Because in 9) is used the present simple.
Thanks for every answer!
LS
Nothing to do if it's happening now. Teenager Posts are general 'facts' of a teenager's life.
Take a look at these examples:
1) 'The awkward moment when you're acting very weird in front of your crush.'
2) 'The awkward moment when you're trying to get over someone you never even dated.'
3) 'That annoying moment when your best friend is getting close to the one whom you don't like.'
4) 'That crazy 5 seconds, when you stand up too fast, and you either go blind, or extremely dizzy.'
5) 'The feeling of 'epicness' when you draw a straight line without a ruler'
6) 'That moment when you hear a song and every world describes your situation perfectly.'
7) 'You know when you walk into a room and forget why you went in there? That's God playing Sims, he just cancelled your action.'
8) 'That feeling you get when you know you are forgetting something, but you don't know what.'
9) 'The awkward moment when you put something on Facebook that you think is super funny and nobody likes it.'
I don't get it. It's not with moment, is it? Because in 9) is used the present simple.
Thanks for every answer!
LS
Top answer
It's not with 'moment ' , is it? YES! Because you are referring to a point in time, not a duration of time.
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It's not with 'moment', is it?
YES! Because you are referring to a point in time, not a duration of time.
In (9) the Simple Present is used here because the speaker is referring to what the speaker regards as a 'timeless' truth. The sentence could start:
YES! Because you are referring to a point in time, not a duration of time.
In (9) the Simple Present is used here because the speaker is referring to what the speaker regards as a 'timeless' truth. The sentence could start:
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Thank you for answering.
It's complicated...I don't get what you mean with 'point in time'
I mean for example number 6) That moment when you hear a song end every world describes your situation perfectly.
It's not a duration (maybe kind of) but the point of view is when you're sitting (or sit???? that's what I meant^^) in a car, and you are listening to music.
Hmm.. way too c
It's complicated...I don't get what you mean with 'point in time'
I mean for example number 6) That moment when you hear a song end every world describes your situation perfectly.
It's not a duration (maybe kind of) but the point of view is when you're sitting (or sit???? that's what I meant^^) in a car, and you are listening to music.
Hmm.. way too c
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louiSTTake a look at these examplesMy advice is not to take any particular strict definition of the word "moment" too seriously. None of the writers of those examples did.
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Sometimes it's used to mean just an instant; sometimes it means a larger span of time.
This needs clarification. I think this would be better termed 'used with' a tense where the verb form itself (Past Simple) indicates that the action/event is seen as a single unit, where time collapses. For example, a detective spends 10 years sol
This needs clarification. I think this would be better termed 'used with' a tense where the verb form itself (Past Simple) indicates that the action/event is seen as a single unit, where time collapses. For example, a detective spends 10 years sol
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Now I'm a bit confused. What's the difference between a duration of time and a period of time?
LS
LS
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Duration: the time during which something continues
Period: a length or portion of time
So - ‘duration of time (of an action/event)’ is much the same as saying ‘the period of time (over which an action/event happened)’.
When I am talking about the Present Perfect tense, and that this tense looks back from NOW, back over a period of time to the starting point of
Period: a length or portion of time
So - ‘duration of time (of an action/event)’ is much the same as saying ‘the period of time (over which an action/event happened)’.
When I am talking about the Present Perfect tense, and that this tense looks back from NOW, back over a period of time to the starting point of
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louiSTWhat's the difference between a duration of time and a period of time?Duration is a measurement (in minutes, hours, ...).
What the duration of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony?
The duration is about 65 minutes.
The symphony takes places in a certain period of time. The length of this period of time (the duration) is 65 minutes.
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