"Il voyait des ombres et entendait des bruits."

Translation: He was seeing shadows and hearing noises.

[YonatanMil2]

I don't understand, is - "He used to see shadows and he used to hear noises" wrong?

[doublelingot]

• He used to see shadows and used to hear noises.
• He was seeing shadows and hearing noises.
• He saw shadows and heard noises.

[Sucy-en-Brie94]

Bien sûr

[Seattle_Scott]

Both are correct translations depending on the context.

[phoinikos]

Still nit accepted!

[stupefaite]

ils voyaient des ombres et entendaient des bruits

works for an audio exercise.

[Washingbay]

I was also marked wrong for "He used to see shadows and he used to hear noises." Why is this wrong?

[ppkzH80V]

'he used to see shadows and hear noises' is accepted.

[Pina233592]

Dear Duolingo staff, In English we do not use the present continuous for verbs of sense and emotion along with another handful of verbs e.g. in this case: he saw/used to see the shadows NOT he was seeing and he heard/ used to hear noises NOT he was hearing. I've been and English language teacher for over 20 years and using the simple past is correct grammar here although this aspect is often misused today, unfortunately. Thanks.