student asking question

After the word "told", it has same tense but sometimes it has different tense. Does meaning get changed? - Same tense: A lil' birdie told me you made it official with Tina. - Different tense: A lil' birdie told me you were making it official with Tina.

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, the meaning does change according to the tense. A lil' birdie told me you made it official with Tina - this means they are officially in a relationship already. A lil' birdie told me you were making it official with Tina - they are in the process of becoming official, but are not official yet. By using "made," the simple past tense, the action has already been completed. Thus, we can interpret the use of different tenses to indicate different stages of the action (becoming official).

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