Lesson: Verb Tense - Progressive Tenses

Comment on Verb Tense - Progressive Tenses

Hi Brent,

in 1:57. can we say "Lee lost his watch while running"?

Thanks
Youssef
gmat-admin's picture

That one COULD be considered a little ambiguous, since it's not clear what/who is running. We can say that a Lee is running (i.e., jogging), and we can say that a watch is running (i.e., operating).

It would be less ambiguous to say, "While running, Lee lost his watch."

Thanks

Hi Brent,
is it also possible to write "Sarah was missing the test because she slept" instead of "Sarah missed the test because she was sleeping"? Do you have a nice rule for that?
Thank you very much and best
Eric
gmat-admin's picture

Hi Eric,

If we say "Sarah was missing the test because she slept," then the simple past "she slept" means that the sleeping had already taken place when the test was missed. This isn't the case. The sleeping was still taking place when the test was missed. So, we need the past progressive "was sleeping."

Why dont we say "When Harriet will arrive, Kevin will be painting the house" instead of "arrives".
Is it because we assume Harriet arrives in a repeated or habitual manner?
Thank you and best
Eric
gmat-admin's picture

I don't believe that your suggested sentence is necessarily incorrect, but it does use more words than are needed.

Hi Brent
Why the sentence "Zeke will be running tomorrow" is incorrect,while "Angus will be singing at Symphony Hall next week" is OK ?
Thanks
Jan
Jan
gmat-admin's picture

Hi abnerawesome,

I'm not saying that one is necessarily correct and the other is incorrect.

The point (as noted at 3:11 in the video) is that the future progressive tense can be awkward/unnecessary.

We can also take "Angus will be singing at Symphony Hall next week" and rewrite it as Angus will sing at Symphony Hall next week"

Both are correct, but the second sentence is more concise.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent-

I understood from gmatclub how option C is correct but I saw same question somewhere else and as per that forum correct ans is E. That forum eliminated ans. choice C because remain and stationary are redundant. Please confirm which option is correct



https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-peaks-of-a-mountain-range-acting-like-rocks-in-a-streambed-produ-80576.html
gmat-admin's picture

The correct answer is C.

There's a nice discussion (with 2 experts who know their stuff :-) here: http://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-question-from-og-90-t9316.html

Cheers,
Brent

Hi.
Isnt this an example of past progressive tense?
I was swimming yesterday.
gmat-admin's picture

Yes, that's definitely past progressive tense.

Cheers,
Brent

Brent, hi
I am struggling with Verbal section of GMAT
preparation. Could you please help me with them.
In this question (link below) option C is correct, but I am confused with word
“allowing” it looks like part of Present Continuous but without is/are → I rejected C, what’s wrong with my logic
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-eyes-of-the-elephant-seal-adapt-to-darkness-more-quickly-than-any-220382.html
gmat-admin's picture

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-eyes-of-the-elephant-seal-adapt-to-darkne...

Consider this construction: Here's some true stuff, and THIS TRUE STUFF RESULTS in something else.
We can shorten the construction by replacing THIS TRUE STUFF RESULTS with RESULTING
In doing so, we get: Some stuff is true, RESULTING in something else.

Answer choice C has a similar construction, except we use ALLOWING instead of RESULTING

We can think of "allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters" as a modifier that's telling us more about the seal's eyes (the eyes allow the seat to hunt....)

Aside: This is actually more of a comparison question. In fact, faulty comparisons allow us to eliminate 3 of the answer choices

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent,

In C) I don't understand why there is no issue with the pronoun "it".

It is very ambiguous since it can refer to elephant seal or darkness,

BTW the subject of the sentence is plural "eyes of..."

Thank you in advance
gmat-admin's picture

I agree there's some potential ambiguity here. That said, answer choice C is still the best (least ambiguous) answer choice.

Here are the official instructions for Sentence Correction questions:

"Follow the requirements of standard written English to choose your answer, paying attention to grammar, word choice, and sentence construction. Select the answer
that produces the most effective sentence; your answer should make the sentence clear, exact, and free of grammatical error. It should also minimize awkwardness, ambiguity, and redundancy."

Notice that the prompt doesn't tell us to minimize ambiguity. This is key.

Cheers,
Brent

1. Present Continuous Tense < Simple Present Tense —> Avoidable
2. Present Continuous Tense < Simple Future Tense —> Avoidable
3. Future Continuous Tense < Simple Future Tense —> Usually Incorrect

What’s the basic difference while saying Avoidable(”Avoid when possible”) & ”Usually Incorrect”?
gmat-admin's picture

Great question.
I'm referring to the frequency with which progressive/continuous tenses are correct.
So, for example, there are times when the correct answer is phrased in the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE tense.
In contrast, it's extremely rare for the FUTURE PROGRESSIVE tense to ever be correct on the GMAT.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent, for this sentence
[It may someday be worthwhile to try to recover uranium from seawater], but at present this process is prohibitively expensive.
Why would the gerund form "Trying to recover urainium out of seawater may someday be worthwhile" be wrong? I thought "to try to" and "trying to" is interchangeable here. The explanation that the sentence meant "the act of trying, instead of act of recovering uranium" is subject of "worthwhile" here feels unconvincing.
gmat-admin's picture

First and foremost we have an idiom problem:
Incorrect: recover X OUT OF Y
Correct: recover X FROM Y

See this link for a second reason to eliminate C: https://gmatclub.com/forum/it-may-someday-be-worthwhile-to-try-to-recove...

Office Hours

On December 20, 2023, Brent will stop offering office hours. 

Change Playback Speed

You have the option of watching the videos at various speeds (25% faster, 50% faster, etc). To change the playback speed, click the settings icon on the right side of the video status bar.

Have a question about this video?

Post your question in the Comment section below, and a GMAT expert will answer it as fast as humanly possible.

Free “Question of the Day” emails!