Past s. & past c. I wasn't looking where I was going when/and I bumped into a man.

[Alex80]

Past s. & past c. I wasn't looking where I was going when/and I bumped into a man.

Hi !
When an action happened in the middle of another one in the same time, esp. with the use of(as/while, when/and), I noticed that the shorter action(the past simple) doesn't come in the negative. Whereas, the longer action(the past continuous) can.
e.g. I wasn't looking where I was going when/and I bumped into a man.
My question is: can the past simple come in the negative with (when/and ) or wothout them when there is past simple+as/while+ past cont.
I mean, can I make a sentence like this:
I was doing sth and/when sb/sth didn't do sth.
or: While I was doing sth, sb/sth didn't do sth.
If it is possible, please give me some examples.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Re: Past s. & past c. I wasn't looking where I was going when/and I bumped into a ma

Hi !
When an action happened in the middle of another one in the same time, especially with the use of [space] (as/while, when/and), I noticed that the shorter action [space] (the past simple) doesn't come in the negative. Whereas, the longer action [space] (the past continuous) can.

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e.g. I wasn't looking where I was going when/and I bumped into a man.

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My question is, can the past simple come in the negative with (when/and[no space]) or without them when there is past simple+as/while+ past continuous? [same paragraph] I mean, can I make a sentence like this?:

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I was doing something and/when somebody/something didn't do something.

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or: While I was doing something, somebody/something didn't do something.

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If it is possible, please give me some examples.

The same practices apply to long and short sentences.

But beyond that, I don't quite undertand the question. Your sample sentences are grammatical but don't mean anything. I don't know how they'd be used in real life.

So you should give us an example to discuss.

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Thanks in advance.

Separate paragraphs with either indents or breaks. (In an online forum, a break is more common.)

In general, spell complete words.