Why can't I say he was trying to stop quickly?
Steve 1) ...had... (have) an accident yesterday. He 2) ..............................................(drive) his car when a bird 3 ) ................(fly) into the windscreen. He 4 ) .........TRIED to stop quickly but he 5 ) ................. (crash) into a wall. Luckily, he 6) ........................... (not/be) hurt.

Why can't I say he was trying to stop quickly?

Question

Why can't I say he was trying to stop quickly?
Steve 1) ...had... (have) an accident yesterday. He 2) ..............................................(drive) his car when a bird 3 ) ................(fly) into the windscreen. He 4 ) .........TRIED  to stop quickly but he 5 ) ................. (crash) into a wall. Luckily, he 6) ........................... (not/be) hurt.

Why can't I say he was trying to stop quickly?

Answer

The action is complete in the story and so the continuous tense does not work well.
To use it you could say "He was trying to stop quickly when ...". In this case the part after "when" interrupts the continuing action.

Answer

You wouldn't "he was trying to stop quickly" because this appears to be an exercise where you practice using verbs in the Simple Past.

Additionally, if we were to say "he was trying to stop", we wouldn't say "BUT he crashed into a wall" but rather "he was trying to stop WHEN he crashed into a wall"

Answer

Here we have a sequence of events and actions. First, he tried to stop and after he crashed the wall.

Answers · 3

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