"I had been on the phone with my sister when the bell rang."  "I was on the phone with my sister when the bell rang."  Do these two sentences have the same meaning?
17149
I have never had this problem before. But after seeing some questions posted on ELU, I started to doubt. I have been through links1, pages of grammar books2, a lot of questions3 posted here and ELU. I now still can't seem to understand how the past perfect is exactly used. The references sometimes even contradict each other.  What I had understood so far was      The past perfect is not necessary if we are not 'going back' to the earlier past, and simply moving from one event to another.   but I then saw a lot of other 'rules' including      If the sequence is clear, the past perfect is not needed.   which is slightly different, less 'narrow' and can be applied in more situations than the first ruleA, and      The past perfect is optional only when talking about an action at a specific time.   This is confusing. Can anyone here clarify things out please?    A For example, for  Doing the survey [completed] -&gt; Showing the result      We showed the result of the survey we did.      If the second rule is applied, the sentence above is fine (the sequence is clear), but not if the first rule since we are not moving from any event to the next and possibly even going back.    1  and   2 Practical English Usage (2005) by Michael Swan, Collins Cobuild Student's Grammar (1991). Upper-Intermediate Cutting Edge.  3 including , , ,  etc.
34402
What is the difference between the following:  Things started to work again. Things started working again.
111101
What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?        This feature is now disabled.   This feature is disabled now.
84476
can anyone please tell me the between "have been" and "was"? Suppose my friends calls me and I reply the following.  Are they interchangeable in the following context?    Hey, Paul I was/have been busy working all day. I am very tired now. I will go your home and talk to you there.   Note that I am not working at the moment of speaking. I have just finished it.
73160
What are the differences between these two phrasal verbs and what are the best situations to use each?
37880
I have seen them both in my reference book, which is written by a native speaker. I wonder why there are two different phrases to describe the same meaning and am looking forward to some reasonable details to explain why this is so.
110501
I read this  and this one is different because the second clause is in present tense.  I'm born and brought up in India. - too commonly practiced in India.  I was born in India is correct over I'm born in India. I am pretty clear on that, but then if I want to include brought up which is still effective (present), how do I say that?  I was born and brought up in India. - does not relate the sentence to the present time then. As both are in past I was born in India + I was brought up in India. - no. I AM brought up in India, I'm still here.
31184
Here's an example of a short conversation between me and a native speaker via text messages:  A: I'm so exited for this app B: Yeah, me too A: We start tomorrow B: OK   Shouldn't it be "We are starting tomorrow"?!
21147
What is the difference between saying:   I should think so. I would think so. I think so.   And also what does using should in this way mean?     It is strange you should say you have seen her, seeing as she left yesterday and hasn’t been back since.
104432
I have discovered that when you dont do something yourself but you make someone else to do it, you can say either:  I had my hair cut. OR  I got my hair cut.  I wonder  whether those two have exactly same meaning and usage. Is one form more common than other? More formal? More suitable in some situations?
72151
What's the difference between "as", "when" and "while"?     The doorbell rang as/when/while Anna was asleep.   Which is right and why?
8681
Do both have the same meaning? Or they are subtly different? Example sentence:  What was (the) best? To go left or right, up or down?   it says that both are exactly the same. But I wonder if that's really the case.
51667
What's the difference between these two sentences? And which one's grammatically correct?
46303
I am sorry if the question is silly, but I think I heard both options spoken by native speaker. So, which one is correct?
49791
Why do 'get' and 'have' work similarly in      I got/had my car repaired.    but differently – that is are not complemented in the same way although they still mean the same – in      I got someone to repair my car.    and      I had someone repair my car.
68482
I comforted a crying kid. I comforted a kid crying.   Is there any difference of the two sentences above in meaning?
34711
How could one combine succinctly two verbs with the same two objects with different prepositions? For example, if I can either add gifts to a box and remove gifts from the box, what would be the most natural way of saying that I can do both?  If I would only talk about the gifts, I could say "I can add and remove gifts;" if I would only talk about the box, I could say "I can add to and remove from the box." Now, how can I say both things at once?