Tom Cruise was thinking of a career in the church before finding job in the movies.
Tom Cruise wasn't thinking of a career in the church after finding job in the movies.
Please tell me, why is Past Continuous used here? I was tought that a normal variant of this sentence is:
- Tom Cruise thought of a career in the church before finding job in the movies.
Or that is because of the gerund "finding"? I mean if for example I wrote the sentence like this:
- Tom Cruise thought of a career in the church before he found job in the movies.
Answer
“Was thinking of” vs “thought of”- when you think about something, there is no definite start and end point, so either the past continuous (progressive) or the simple past is fine. In other words, “to think of (or about)” in this context is something that takes time, so the simple past can be thought of as having this sense of happening over time built into it.
Either “before he found” or “before finding” works here, and they are interchangeable. It doesn’t matter what version of “to think” you use. You could also say
Tom Cruise was thinking about a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
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