did not work vs was not working

Both "did not work" and "was not working" are correct, but they differ in terms of tense. "Did not work" is used to describe a specific event in the past that did not succeed, while "was not working" is used to describe a continuous state of not functioning in the past.

Explained by Vince
Editor at TextRanch

Last updated: November 20, 2024 • 10523 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to describe a specific event in the past that did not succeed.

"did not work"

Use "did not work" to talk about a single event or action that failed to produce the desired result in the past.

Examples:

The machine did not work yesterday.
The plan did not work as expected.
She did not work on the project last week.

Show examples from the web [+]
Last updated: November 17, 2024

Sep 14, 2019 ... (present tense); It did not work. (past tense).
Apr 9, 2020 ... However, on entering the details for my Microsoft account, I received an error telling me that "The User Account Did Not Work" (as shown below).
Jan 4, 2024 ... ... did not work." A net search has yielded no solution. Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Upvote 3. Downvote
Jan 12, 2024 ... When I enter in my Microsoft password, I get this in response: "Your credentials did not work. The credentials that were used to connect to PC-A ...
Mar 23, 2023 ... Credentials did not work at PIP starting ... Hello guys, When I start an automation by PIP mode, it could not pass the verification of credential( ...
Dec 31, 2022 ... My domain is: api.letsnoch.com I ran this command: sudo certbot --nginx It produced this output: permanently dropping privs did not work My ...
Dec 3, 2021 ... I always get "Your credentials did not work". The web client doesn't work either. The security log on the AVD VM shows ID 4625 - "Unknown user ...
Jan 2, 2024 ... I created a form to collect some information, after data collection was completed i realized that some of the calculated questions did not work.
Aug 27, 2017 ... ... did-not-work-error-when-connecting-to-windows-azure-vms/. (6) You may find links such as the below which mention Get-AzureVM, that seems to ...
Jul 8, 2019 ... ... did not work”. RemoteApp.png800×604 73.2 KB. This is a big project that i am working on and i find my self stuck. So far i have ...

Alternatives:

failed
was unsuccessful
did not function

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to describe a continuous state of not functioning in the past.

"was not working "

Use "was not working" to describe a situation where something was not functioning over a period of time in the past.

Examples:

The computer was not working all day yesterday.
The car was not working properly last month.
The phone was not working when I tried to call.

Show examples from the web [+]
Last updated: November 17, 2024

Nov 4, 2021 ... Did you perform a wipe? Or the finger print was not working and after the update it started working?
Oct 31, 2017 ... I get "Possible Performance degration, V3 was not working: One or more errors occurred." message when I use the on-premise TFS server.
May 3, 2024 ... And so I am unsure if the sync was not working, or overwriting my IOS changes with the unchanged version on the Mac, or if the Share Sheet ...
Jul 16, 2019 ... ... was not working, I was missing a file like so ~/config/dotnet-tools.json with the following: { "version": 1, "isRoot": true, "tools ...
Oct 8, 2024 ... What made Voldemort realise that the Elder wand was not working for him the way it should? Discussion. I am reading DH but don't seem to ...
Still no brush. Then I found that on a new document it also was not working. Most of the rest of the tools seem ok including text, eraser, pen, ...
Sep 25, 2020 ... Even the main IIS Welcome page at http://localhost was not working. Internet Explorer showed: "Can't reach this page / Make sure the web ...
WAS not working · Hardware Autosteer · Youngfarmer23 29 February 2024 19:12 1. Hi there, I'm currently bench testing my setup, but I've had some problems ...
Jun 22, 2023 ... it was indicating some where else, and also i have removed and added extensions for chrome and restarted system , even though it was not working ...
May 3, 2013 ... The problem is yesterday when I was setting this BTSync all up, it was not working. Nothing I did seemed to sync anything until I disconnected from the VPN.

Alternatives:

was malfunctioning
was out of order
was not operational

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did not work vs was not working

"did not work"

"was not working "

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