Tenses – Difference Between ‘I Was Building It’ and ‘I Didn’t Build It’

past-tenseperfect-aspectpresent-tense

Many natives told me that simple past always tells about completion, so I've been wondering how to speak about actions that you were doing at a specific time in the past, but in the end didn't finish. Are these sentences correct grammatically?

1A: Have you built that wooden ship I gave you?
B: I was building it (yesterday at 3 pm.), but I haven't built it. (I gave up building it)

2A: Did you write your book?
B: I was writing it (ten days ago), but I didn't write it. (I gave up writing it)

Best Answer

These sentences are perfectly grammatical, but they're confusing. You've asked several questions in the past about how much past simple can imply that an action if finished (or can't). Regardless of what was discussed there, one conclusion should be that this implication is only vaguely made, and relies on context to become clear. Another thing to note is that, without any extra context, negating the verb tends to make the opposite implication.

  • I built the ship or I have built the ship —On their own, both tend to imply "I completed the project"
  • I didn't build the ship or I haven't built the ship —On their own, tend to imply "I didn't even start."

Because of this, it's a little confusing to both say that you "were doing" something and "didn't do it." And the best way to resolve confusion is to use words that actually make the meaning clear:

I was building it yesterday, but I haven't finished [building it].

I was writing it, but I didn't finish.

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