Is there a difference between the two interrogative:

What did you do on Monday evening?

What were you doing on Monday evening?

commented

as far  as day-to-day life conversation is concerned we can use both..but grammatically speaking 1st one sounds more intense and productive work whereas 2nd statement sounds general.......

5 Answers

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They differ slightly in tone, however. "What did you do Monday evening?" is more general and casual -- I would ask a work colleague "What did you do this weekend?" as polite chat, for instance. "What were you doing" would generally be followed by "when" -- "What were you doing at 5:00?" or "What were you doing when X happened?" A police officer would ask a suspect, for example, "What were you doing?" at a certain place and time while investigating a case.

0vote

No there isn't.

You can use both of them whenever you want.

0vote

1, it is past simple tense

2, it is continous past tense

0vote

What did you do on Monday evening? [Simple past tense]
What were you doing on Monday evening? [Past continuous tense]
Both sentences are correct in their tenses.

0vote

tiffy 7350
Both of them are correct and have the same meaning.

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