I was walking to the shop, but I haven’t yet arrived at the shop. And I want to inform it to someone.
In this case, can I use the simple past tense (e.g. I walked to the shop)?
If not, can the simple past tense be used only for a finished action?
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You have your tenses confused. If you haven't yet arrived you would say "I am walking to the shop", not was or I walked. – Kate Bunting Jan 05 '22 at 15:51
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@Kate Bunting Then, the simple tense can never be used for unfinished action? – user09827 Jan 05 '22 at 15:52
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A 'simple tense' must be past, present or future. See this. If you are currently walking to the shop, that is the present continuous tense (because the action is still going on). In English we don't use the present simple for ongoing actions. – Kate Bunting Jan 05 '22 at 15:59
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I would not say you can never use the simple past for an unfinished action, but like James K says, English just doesn't really make that distinction. If you say "I ate five cakes yesterday", it does not imply anything about whether that means you are done forever, or whether you plan to eat more, or what. – stangdon Jan 05 '22 at 17:05
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That said, if you say "I walked to work", it certainly implies that you finished the action, because otherwise it was not really all the way "to work", was it? – stangdon Jan 05 '22 at 17:09
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The difference between using a simple tense and a "continuous" construction is primarily in how the speaker is choosing to present the events, not in any objective characteristic of the events.
The following are both possible:
When I was walking to the shop yesterday, I saw Jenny.
When I walked to the shop yesterday, I saw Jenny.
The first is probably more common, and makes it clear that it was before I got to the shop that I saw Jenny.
The second is less specific: I might have seen Jenny on the way, or I might have seen her when I had arrived at the shop: we can't tell. So the walked may in your sense designate a completed or an incomplete action. The speaker is simply not choosing to give us that specificity, probably because their interest is focused on seeing Jenny, not on exactly when they saw her.
Colin Fine
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No, the simple past can never be used for an incomplete action. The tense always refers to a finished past action or state.
"I walked to the shop" necessarily means that I arrived at the shop (finished in the past) and I am not still walking there now.
The correct way to inform someone is with present continuous:
"I'm walking to the shop"
gotube
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