Is Number 8 incorrect?

Technically correct, sounds weird though

Seems fine to me. If someone says to me "Andrew got pizza all over his new clothes yesterday," I can say "Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday--are you sure that's pizza?"

Both are potentially correct. 10 and 11 are wrong however.

Number 8 would usually require more context. For example, you could say “Usually, when I go to see Andrew in his office, he’s eating pizza. Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday.” In this case, it works because there’s a “when…” in the previous sentence. If you say “Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday” without context like that, it’s not really _wrong_, but it sounds like a very awkward way of expressing “Yesterday, Andrew spent the entire day not eating pizza”, or maybe setting up for “Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday, he was preparing for his exams.” Again, the -ing makes it sound like the statement applies to the entire length of time mentioned.

10 is off

Yeah it’s fine just used in specific contexts

Both are right. No. 8 suggest he was doing something else, and/or eating pizza at a different date.

In isolation, one would typically say "Andrew didn't eat pizza yesterday." However, that's still grammatically correct.

It's grammatically correct.

Number 8 is fine. In some languages, like Spanish, there are different rules for the use of the preterite versus imperfect tense. Those rules don’t apply to modern English.

Could be right, but those two sentences have slightly different meanings. What was the question?

#10 is incorrect

"Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday" isn't a common way to phrase it, but it's not incorrect. The nuances are different from "Andrew didn't eat pizza yesterday". My first impression is that Andrew wasn't joining in and having fun with everyone else, even though he ordinarily would, and the speaker is worried and/or suspicious.

It is grammatically correct, but whether you would say that would depend on the context.

Number 8 is correct, I don't see anything wrong with it. Doesn't even sound janky to me. Sometimes it morphs differently based on the situation but nothing is grammatically wrong with it. For example sometimes you may omit the "yesterday" becuase prior context from the conversation is already talking about yesterday, like Person A: "What did you all eat yesterday?" Person B: "We were all eating pizza" Person C: "Yeah, but Andrew wasn't". You wouldn't say "eating pizza yesterday" because those parts are already included in the converation. As for when you would say it, that's a bit less likely because the sentence is super complete - many aspects can be inferred from previous conversation, like andrew, pizza, and yesterday. Person A: "James really loves pizza, I swear he eats it daily" Person B: "Yeah he totally does but he wasn't eating it yesterday" I can't lie that's the best I can do haha BUT regardless of all I've said, **yes it's correct***.*

There is nothing incorrect about the statement. People are saying it sounds weird not because of anything to do with correct or incorrect grammar, but because the content is uncommon or unusual, it is not a commonplace everyday thing in life to remark upon what people did not eat in the past, in any language. So if we swap out 'eating pizza' for something more commonplace like 'working from home', then you can appreciate that there is nothing wrong with this sentence at all.

both are correct. "andrew didn't eat pizza" is probably more common, but technically, both are grammatically correct.

(6) is correct (10) and (11) have grammar problems (7) is all right with me. Sally is doing something that takes a while, and apparently the duration matters. Whereas, we care about what I did, but not how long it took. (8) and (9) could go either way, with a little imagination. But in the most common situations, (8) isn’t appropriate while (9) is kind of a coin toss. So (8) is defective more often than not. But for example, “The reason you all have stomach aches today is that everyone ate pizza all day yesterday.” “That’s not true. Andrew’s sick, and Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday.” It’s a bit of a reach, but it works for me 🤷

Both are perfectly fine to use. Your teacher’s version is a bit more natural, but if you use the one on the board, you will definitely be understood.

Think of the "was X-ing" tense as more of "setting the scene" with a background action for a different event to happen while that first thing is going on, which is then in the plain "-ed" past tense. * "He wasn't eating pizza yesterday... when I arrived." * "He wasn't eating pizza yesterday... because the pizza shop just went out of business" * "He wasn't eating pizza yesterday... after he visited the dentist" It usually doesn't stand by itself. In fact it sounds a little odd to be written by itself. The -ing ending makes the verb "feel" like the action was ongoing over some time (during which the action with the -ed verb happened). If the event finished, which you know because you're talking about something that happened yesterday, then it'd be just the plain past tense. If it does stand by itself, then it would be "He didn't eat pizza yesterday". Now, in the context of a conversation, it could make sense standing alone as a reply to a statement someone else made: * A: "The pizza in the fridge is missing, Andrew was the only one here when I left" * B: "Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday"

"Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday[, but he is today]" would say there was some sort of shift in Andrew's habits, such as no longer being vegan. "Andrew didn't eat pizza yesterday" would be a more typical use, saying simply that Andrew didn't eat pizza that day in particular. Both are correct but mean different things. The test version would be communicating something unusual, while the teacher's version is more typical.

It's grammatically correct, but feels unfinished - he wasn't eating pizza ... when? while doing what? Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday while doing his homework - he was just having some chips. Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday when I dropped by. Andrew didn't eat pizza yesterday. - At no time yesterday did Andrew eat any pizza.

It's not grammatically wrong. I could see this as a response to a doctor's questions about a patient's recent food intake.

It depends on the context.

Unless this is supposed to be in a specific tense, it's perfectly correct.

Only 10 and 11 have errors

It’s correct. More natural to say he didn’t eat pizza. He wasn’t eating pizza is continuous during the whole day when there may have been several opportunities to eat pizza.

8 is correct but “Andrew didn’t eat pizza yesterday” works in more contexts. 10 should be “were you playing” instead of played and 11 should be “Martin and Ann were studying” because there is two of them.

Banana

Yea that’s right

It's grammatically correct, but it may not be the type of past tense your teacher is trying to teach at the moment. "Wasn't eating" is past continuous tense, if you want to look that term up. It involves was (or were) and the present participle of a verb (ends in -ing). From Google: "The past continuous tense, also known as the past progressive, describes an action that was ongoing at a specific time in the past." Examples: I was reading. She was singing in the shower. They were playing football when it started to rain. While I was cooking dinner, the phone rang. I was studying when my friend called.

From what I remember from school, the phrase "wasn't eating" is grammatically correct, when you're talking about a specific time in the past. Eg. "He wasn't eating pizza yesterday at 10pm. You use "didn't eat" when you talk about past in general, like yesterday or a week ago. At the same time, I don't think this distinction is ever really used by native speakers. So your teacher is technically right, but really it doesn't matter.

On the lower levels teachers have to correct that and mark it as a mistake, so that you have automatic usage of the tenses, without thinking. Just my opinion. I teach my Mum now, we’ll only start Present Simple soon, and I will mark anything like “I’m loving it” McDonalds style as a mistake. I’m not very good myself, only at B2 or so. But the nuances of how to use continuous and simple tenses to express subtle differences are studied later. You can open Grammar in Use in 3 different levels, and see how Simple and Continuous tenses are described there

It’s grammatically correct. However, I think a whole day is too long to describe someone’s simple continuous action, while duration of eating action is too short to last entire day. It should be last morning, last evening, etc.

People are making this way more complicated than it is. Adding context that may or may not be implied. It will make OP confused. Basically grammar in tests/exercises has expectations/standards. The exercise has only the word "Yesterday" as the standard, same for no. 9 with "last night". This prompts the past simple. That's all.

Your mother is accusing your brother of getting pizza stains on the sofa. You can say - but mom, Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday. Would be a total normal sentence.

8 is fine, 10 and 11 are incorrect

Grammatically correct — also very awkward.

No, it is not wrong, but it seems like the exercise wants you to notice the "yesterday" in the sentence and choose the past simple.

This is correct, but there is no need to use continuous tenses without extra context. Therefore for example, if we added “at 6pm” it would be totally correct, but in this case the teacher is really right “Andrew didn’t eat pizza yesterday” would be more correct, even though we could have said otherwise with additional context.

Correct I was not eating pizza yesterday

Depends on the instructions. The website includes “past-simplepast-progressive”, and everything on screen seems to work with either tense. “This time last year, we didn’t study French.” “I wasn’t talking to my sister last night.” “Did you play football when your cat fell out of the caboose?” Etc. All of them are perfectly valid sentences, very similar to “Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday”. Since all of these sentences make sense with past simple or past progressive tense, I can tell that there’s more to the assignment then simply choosing a tense that makes sense. Because if that’s the assignment then there are no wrong answers. Based on number 11, I’m guessing the assignment was to correct the sentence *and keep the tense*, and number 8 started out as “Andrew didn’t ate pizza yesterday” or something.

You know how Andrew is on thst weird diet where he can only eat some foods on some days and not others? Most of us wanted to get delivery from Luigi's, but we ended up getting Chinese, because Andrew wasn't eating pizza yesterday.

If the context is like “hey should we bring some pizza to Andrew’s or did you see he had some yesterday?” It would be “Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday.” (Implying you didn’t see him having any). If the context is “hey should we bring some pizza to Andrew’s or did he have some yesterday?” It would be “Andrew didn’t eat any pizza yesterday.” Both are interchangeable but this is how I would use them.

It's correct.

“Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday” and “Andrew didn’t eat pizza yesterday” are the same thing, but as a native speaker I would lean towards saying “Andrew didn’t eat pizza yesterday,” because it focuses more on him not eating PIZZA, rather than him NOT EATING pizza.

I think that there isn't enough context to justify the use of the present progressive tense, although it is grammatically correct. Usually, the continuous form is used to focus on action duration at a specific point in time or in contrast to another short or long action taking place at the same time. So it is more appropriate to use the simple past tense or change the time expression with a more specific one for example: He was eating a pizza at seven yesterday evening.

No 11 also looks incorrect. Surely they ‘were’ studying not was.

I think this is a question for Andrew

10 and 11 seem wrong

8 isn’t incorrect, but it’s more commonly used when answering a question of sorts. i’m omitting “yesterday” because i’m using it in the question. 8 is only kinda incorrect in isolation. person A : “what was everyone up to when it started to rain yesterday?” person B : “well, sarah was playing with the dog in the yard, and andrew wasn’t eating pizza. i forget what it was, but he was eating on the porch.” however 10 and 11 are incorrect. here are the ways i would say them 10) were you PLAYING football when your cat fell out of the…(-ing instead of -ed because -ing implies the action was interrupted by something else, in this example the cat falling) 11) last night, martin and ana WERE studying from…(were instead of was because martin AND ana is a plural subject. there are two people studying. they were studying, not they was.)

8 is grammatically correct. "Andrew was not eating pizza yesterday." It sounds like a response to a question during a conversation.

In practice it’s not wrong. But if it’s in standardized tests or exercise then (8) could be flagged as incorrect. Basically “yesterday” —> past simple. I used to be taught like that when studying basic English lol.

I think 8 maybe isnt incorrect but 10 is

It depends on context. Both versions of the sentence are grammatically correct. They have different meanings.

Andrew wasn’t eating pizza yesterday because he thought he couldn’t have gluten. But now that he can, he’s eating all the pizza he can find. It works fine. “Andrew didn’t eat pizza yesterday” is also correct. Number 10 is fully incorrect. And the only way I can spin it to be right unless “Were You” is someone’s name

There are plenty of contextual situations where you might say that. It’s not inherently incorrect.

The grammar is fine.