past continuous and past simple? thank you

Question

past continuous and past simple? thank you

ELENA Tkacheva Ученик (60), закрыт 15 лет назад

Answer 1

The past simple describes a complete event in the past. The past contir does not describe the complete event, it describes the event in progress time between its beginning and its end.
Stative verbs, that is verbs that describe thoughts, sentiments and state normally be put into the continuous form. (See p. 29)
Look at the difference between these sentences: He was cooking the dinner when I arrived.
(He started cooking the dinner before my arrival and the cooking was i
at the time of my arrival.)
He cooked the dinner when I arrived.
(I arrived and then he cooked the dinner. Two complete events.)

Answer 2

A verb can't be durative, a verb is a word that names an action. It's the action a verb denotes that can be either durative or terminative, I think. Thus "they quarreled" - "поссорились" is a terminative action and "were quarrelling" - "ссорились" - a durative one and they both are expressed by the same "to quarrel". I also think that in some instances "to spill" can express a durative action with an emotional coloring like "He is always spilling his coffee!"