I was on the subway train...

Hi.

Today when I was on my way to the shopping ball (I took the subway) and I felt the earthquake. Many others also had the same feeling as I had. I wrote a sentence to express the idea:

I was on the subway train to a shopping mall when the earth suddenly started to shake itself.

Is this sentence how native speakers would say?

Silverobama said:

Hi.

Today when I was on my way to the shopping mall (I took the subway) and I felt the earthquake. Many others also had the same feeling as I had. I wrote a sentence to express the idea:

I was on the subway train to a shopping mall when the earth suddenly started to shake. itself.

Is this sentence how what native speakers would say?

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How could you tell it wasn't just the train shaking?

I'd say "when the ground started shaking".

Silverobama said:

Today when I was on my way to the shopping mall (I took the subway) and I felt the earthquake.

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You can express this in one of two ways:

Today, when I was on my way to the shopping mall (I took the subway), I felt an earthquake.
Today, I was on my way to the shopping mall (I took the subway) and I felt an earthquake.

You can't use "When I was ..." and then "and I ...".

The most concise way to say what you mean is this:

I was on the subway and the ground suddenly started shaking.

The fact that you were going to a shopping mall is completely uninteresting.

I might say I felt a tremor.

What was it on the Richter scale?

The only reason to include the information about the shopping mall would be if someone had asked you where you were when the earthquake hit. This would involve both speaker and listener knowing which earthquake is being referred to. Even then, it wouldn't really be necessary.

Helen: Where were you when last week's earthquake hit? I was at work and dived straight under the table!
John: I was on the subway (heading to the shopping mall).

I was on the subway and the ground suddenly started shaking.
I was on the subway when the ground suddenly started shaking.

The first event was abruptly interrupted by the second, hence the past progressive tense was used. Isn't it better to use "when" instead of "and"?
To me, "and" implies two events happening in parallel while "when" implies the first event was interrupted by the second.

That must have been scary.

tedmc said:

I was on the subway and the ground suddenly started shaking.
I was on the subway when the ground suddenly started shaking.

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They both use past simple (started), not past progressive.

tedmc said:

The first event was abruptly interrupted by the second, hence the past progressive tense was used. Isn't it better to use "when" instead of "and"?
To me, "and" implies two events happening in parallel while "when" implies the first event was interrupted by the second.

Click to expand...

It's not quite as straightforward as that. If you want to delve into the difference, I'm happy to go into it but I think you should start a new thread for that.