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Question He smoked VS He was smoking

hirashin

Sempai
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8 Apr 2004
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I have a question about the tense.
Do both (a) and (b) make sense in each case?
(1a) He smoked as he drove along the street.
(1b) He was smoking as he drove along the street.
(2a) It rained when I got off the bus.
(2b) It was raining when I got off the bus.
 
I have a question about the tense.
Do both (a) and (b) make sense in each case?
(1a) He smoked as he drove along the street.
(1b) He was smoking as he drove along the street.
(2a) It rained when I got off the bus.
(2b) It was raining when I got off the bus.
All are ok.
(1a) and (1b) meaning is basically the same.
(2a) and (2b) is basically the same except for (2a) we don't know if it was raining when you got off the bus. Maybe it started starting a few minutes later.
 
For your confusion... ;)

3a) The sax player was really smoking last night.
3b) He got smoked in a drive by.
3c) I smoked that test.
 
Thanks for giving me the sentences, johnnyG.
Is "smoking" in your 3a different from that of 1b? Is it a slang word?

I don't understand 3b and 3c.
What do "get smoked" and "a drive by" mean?
"Smoked" in 3c seems to be slang.
 
3a means the sax player was playing really, really well (intensely, likely jazz).

3b means to be killed. A drive by is a type of shooting in the US. One or more guns, fired from a car that is driving by some people (on the street, in a house). Drive-by shooting - Wikipedia

I was surprised when looking for the meaning of 3c. I would have said it means to easily do well on the test (as in playing music really well), but I saw online something that said it means that you flubbed it--did poorly on the test.

For the first, 3a, there's an old jazz album called "Smokin' at the Half Note".
 
I was surprised when looking for the meaning of 3c. I would have said it means to easily do well on the test (as in playing music really well), but I saw online something that said it means that you flubbed it--did poorly on the test.
I think you were right the first time. According to Merriam Webster, it means "slang : to defeat or surpass decisively."
 
The literal version, "She is smoking!" (smoking a cigarette, sound like she shouldn't be)

Alternatively, this is another way to say she is extremely attractive. "Hot" might also be used with this, to mean "attractive".

She's really hot!
She's smoking hot! (here "really" and "smoking" modify "hot")

Shortening the second one, "She's smoking." =She's hot/very attractive.

**
And your question, "Can it mean she's angry?"

Oddly/interestingly, altho smoke and fumes are so similar, by saying "She's fuming," or "She's fuming hot," you are now saying that she's very angry.
 
The literal version, "She is smoking!" (smoking a cigarette, sound like she shouldn't be)
What about the even more literal version where she's actually emitting smoke.
kramersmoking.gif



By the way, you can say "smoking mad" to mean very angry but smoking alone wouldn't mean angry unless there are contextual clues pointing to that meaning.
 
(1a) He smoked as he drove along the street.

Don't like this one

Is he on fire???


Inusages related to smoking, the "be smoking" seems to be most common. He smoked seem to "want" and object. whereas is smoking etc, have the default meaning of a cigarette (perhaps a North American thing???)
 
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