beginning and end of verbs

Question

I would like to know the opinion of people whose mother tongue is English about the "naturalness" of these sentences describing mechanically the beginning and the end of an action. I am interested in people's natural 'feeling? regarding these sentences and not formal explanations or corrections (as I am aware of them).

If you don't mind indulging my curiosity, please tell me whether each one "is fine", "sounds a bit strange", "is plain wrong" or any other comment in none of the previous ones apply. Thanks.

1) If you say you were talking to him at 13:00, you could say that you started to talk at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

2) If you say you were wearing a shirt at 13:00, you could say that you started to wear it at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

3) If you say you were going home at 13:00, you can could that you started to go home at 12:00 and you finished going home at 14:00.

4) If you say you were having a good time at 13:00, you can could that you started to have a good time at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

5) If you say you were having a shower at 13:00, you can could that you started to have a shower at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

Answer 1

beginning ? not beging

Gus said:

I would like to answer this,just to see how my answers compares to the natives' answers; It will be interesting for me.

1.fine

2.fine

3 strange

4.fine

5.strange.

One small observation, I noticed that Americans use the word beging more often than the word start, I don't know the reason for this.

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Answer 2

I think all are a bit strange but number 3 is not right at all. when you "go home" it means the time you start to go home , not the whole journey home

Answer 3

Whether or not you have added much of substance, you certainly have managed to capture the discussion points concisely. I don´t know why it always takes me in particular so many words to say things....:-(

James Santiago said:

I probably won't add much of substance to what others have said, but as another data point...

1) If you say you were talking to him at 13:00, you could say that you started to talk at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

Logically true. "I was talking at 1:00" means only that I was engaged in that activity at that time, and does not specify the start or end time.

• He killed himself at 1:00.

• No, that's not possible. I was talking to him at 1:00.

2) If you say you were wearing a shirt at 13:00, you could say that you started to wear it at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

Sounds odd because "to wear" isn't usually used with "start" and "finish," and is instead used with "put on" and "take off."

3) If you say you were going home at 13:00, you could say that you started to go home at 12:00 and you finished going home at 14:00.

Sounds odd because "to go home" isn't usually used with "start" and "finish," and is instead used with "leave for home" and "arrive/get home."

4) If you say you were having a good time at 13:00, you could say that you started to have a good time at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

Logically fine, although unlikely in the real world. And rather than "finish," we would usually say "stop."

• We started having a good time at noon when Bob arrived, but we stopped having fun at 2:00 when Bill showed up and killed the party.

5) If you say you were having a shower at 13:00, you could say that you started to have a shower at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

Fine, other than the UK/US differences. Usually, though, the end of a shower is referred to by "get out."

• I started taking a shower at noon and I got out (of the shower) at 2:00.

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Answer 4

I would take a different path....

1. (re talk) "spoke from"......"talked until."
2. (re the shirt) "put it on at" ......."took it off at".
3. (re going home) "left for home at" ..... "arrived home at".
4. (re good time) "began enjoying myself at" ....."that stopped at"
5. (re the shower) "got in the shower at" ......."got out at".

Annie.

Answer 5

Natasha said:

Americans eat dinner and the British take dinner, right?

lazarus1907 said:

Janice said:

Reading the comments, I returned to re-read your sentences. It occurred to me that sentence number five sounds strange because we do not have showers in (American) English. We take showers.

I forgot that American take showers and British have showers, but the whole point was about starting and ending an action anyway.

The English say 'have' dinner not 'take'. The English interchange 'take' and 'have' when refering to a shower in order to sound American and trendy (it's currently trendy to sound American). There's nothing wrong with 'taking a shower', but more common to 'having a shower'

Answer 6

Can you explain what you mean by delimited actions?

From dictionary.com:

delimit. To establish the limits or boundaries of; demarcate.

lazarus1907 said:

This is the whole point: whereas in English the present progressive is for actions happening right now (and future plans, but that's another story) as opposed to the simple present, which is for habitual actions, the Spanish progressive requires delimited actions, which is why verbs like "ir" or "wear" are not used with the progressive (in most countries).

Nice analysis, by the way. You could have intervened earlier.

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Answer 7

1) If you say you were talking to him at 13:00, you could say that you started to talk at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

2) If you say you were wearing a shirt at 13:00, you could say that you started to wear it at 12:00 and you finished at 14:00.

3) If you say you were going home at 13:00, you can could that you started to go home at 12:00 and you finished going home at 14:00.

4) If you say you were having a good time at 13:00, you can could that you started to have a good time at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

5) If you say you were having a shower at 13:00, you can could that you started to have a shower at 12:00 and you finished having it at 14:00.

These all sound like they were written by a robot or an English text book. Nobody talks like that. Loosen up. Some things in a sentence are just understood.

Answer 8

Hi Martial, welcome to the forum

Answer 9

Hola a todos.

I think I am not good enough to answer these questions. But I still would like to add my common on.

Honestly, I think these five sentences do not sound natural and Americans probably wouldn't say them in real situation. However, that doesn't mean these sentences are grammatically incorrect. As many people know, some construction or uses might be very common in period of time, but would be unnatural or strange if people didn't use them for a while. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)

By the way, these sentences are correct if I translate them to my native language directly. :D

Thank you,

Marco

Answer 10

Okay, if I understand what you're asking, you want to know how the sentences sound and if a person would use your construction and vocabulary in normal American written or spoken conversation.
I'm not going reiterate all the detail the others have. Several have covered the grammatical ground quite adequately.
As a teacher of English in both high school and college and a professional writer my opinion (because you wanted us to avoid the facts) is that all the sentences sound awkward to me.
Reason 1 -- No one in America that I know uses 24-hour time references spoken or written unless he or she is in the military. Military uses a 24-hour clock all the time, as well as some established scientific government organizations. Some companies that do business internationally use military time, but in normal conversation--NO.

Reason 2 -- As others have mentioned . . .
Sentence 1 -- You could use that construction if in the context of the conversation the duration of the conversation was important. For instance, someone might ask you, "How long did you two talk'"
Sentence 2 -- Again, the context might add some clarity. If you were trying on a new shirt, but decided you didn't like it, or you wanted to change clothes, you could say it that way and it might make sense. If you walked up to a friend and said it like you wrote it, they would probably look at you as if you were weird (for a further reference on weird talk to senor Santiago).
Sentence 3 -- Once again context of the remark would make all the difference. I can't imagine why you would say, or anyone would want to know when you STARTED going home. Most folks would just say, "I got home at 2:00.
Sentence 4 -- I hope I never finish having a good time. American listeners I know would consider it a weird statement.
Sentence 5 -- No one "has" a shower. In America we "take" showers. And, I agree with others, if you're taking a shower for two hours you have more problems than your translation. Caveat: In the second person in English, the "tu" in espanol, moms sometimes ask their children, or spouses ask their spouses, "Have you had your shower yet'"
Caveat 2: When real estate agents are describing a home to prospective home buyers, they might say something like, "The bathroom has a shower", or "The basement has a shower." But again, people don't "have" showers, they "take" them.
I'd be quite interested to learn more about the language theory you are working on. It sounds interesting.

Answer 11

I am having breakfast/lunch/dinner
John is having a conversation
They are having a meeting
We are having a shower

This is the dynamic form of the verb "to have" and unlike its stative brother can describe an activity in progress (as opposed to a state of possession).

Answer 12

Hola amigos: Gracias por la interesante discusión pero creo que ya nos hemos desviado del tema original demasiado.

Please open a new thread if you wish to continue with this discussion.

Muchas gracias

Hilo cerrado.