>>>
>>>But how about street talk? Are all people really using the "I'm smoking a cigarette" sentence and do they never say "I smoke a cigarette"? I'm not referring here to formal speech, but to street talk. How about...
>>>
>>>"I was smoking a cigarette."
>>>"I smoked a cigarette."
>>>
>>
>>We would use the first ( past tense progressive ) to indication what we were doing when something else happened. "I was smoking a cigarette when the teacher caught me."
>>
>>We use the second to indicate past completed action
>>
>>"What did you do outside?"
>>"I smoked a cigarette."
>>
>>If someone says "What were you doing ( while you were ) outside?"
>>
>>"I was smoking a cigarette ( while I was outside )" is correct as the duration is implied.
>
>Terry gave this example:
>
>A - "Come inside"
>
>B1 - "No, I'm smoking"
>B2 - "No, I smoke" Which indicates that someone is a smoker.
>
>I understand that rule. But if one can say "I smoked a cigarette", then one can also say "I smoke a cigarette", notwithstanding the proclaimed practice that most would say "I am smoking a cigarette". As it is obvious to everyone that this person is not a smoker of one single cigarette during his whole life. ( I know cigarettes kill you, but not that fast :)
>
>

You can say it. It just is not the way a native speak speaks. But if you are qualifying it with habitual behavior "I smoke a cigarette after dinner every day" sounds perfectly fine.

I agree this is difficult in English and it is understandable either way, of course, but it is one of the major problems for non-native speakers. I am sure that I make exactly these kind of errors all the time in other languages.


>
>In Dutch