Can the past continuous be used this way?

Question

1 I missed your call because I was helping fix Jack's car for one hour.

I am not sure if it's correct. It is supposed to mean though, "During that hour I was helping fix Jack's car, I missed your call".

Context. I had been supposed to be helping with the car for 30 minutes but I spent 1 hour and because of that I missed your call.

EDITTED: helping fixing substituted for helping fix

I was helping [to] fix* Jack's car. The verb to fix* there has to be the infinitive form. It's purely a stylistic choice whether to include the "infinitive marker" *to* in this exact context - whether you do or don't makes no difference to the meaning, and personally I don't think either version is any more "formal" or "colloquial" than the other, but opinions may differ on that front. — FumbleFingers, Jan 16 '21 at 13:17
Have a look at Is this “helped + make” combination a form of subjunctive? — FumbleFingers, Jan 16 '21 at 13:21

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 16 '21 at 15:05

Yes, that is perfectly acceptable, though I would think most native English speakers would say

because fixing Jack's car took longer than expected,

and only mention the actual time taken if it's specifically brought up.

Incidentally, we would not usually use the word "one" like that. When referring to one of something we usually say "a/an", e.g.

I was helping fix Jack's car for an hour.

or

I've not been there in over a year.

1 Answers1