was asking/asked

[kira_moondance]

This is a question in my English textbook.

Complete the sentence with the past simple or past progressive form of the verbs in parentheses.
Greta ______________ (ask) who Anna was talking to.

The answer key is 'asked.' Can I use 'was asking' here to imply an ongoing action? Like Greta was asking (me) all day who Anna was talking to.

 

[lingobingo]

It’s grammatically correct, yes.

 

[kentix]

It's grammatical but it's a very unlikely question to be asked all day.

 

[The Newt]

"Greta was asking who Anna was talking to" is fine; it doesn't necessarily imply duration of any real length.

 

[kira_moondance]

Thank you so much for your replies. Even if it's grammatically correct, does it sound natural?

 

[lingobingo]

It would depend on the context. In the absence of any context whatsoever, all we can say about using the progressive aspect in this case is that it’s not actually wrong, but it would certainly not be the obvious choice of how to complete that kind of sentence in an English test.