"I was willing to do whatever was necessary to be the wife he wanted."
"I was willing to do whatever necessary to be the wife he wanted."
with or without "was" make a big difference?
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
It does make a big difference, and in this case, it is necessary to increase "was"; you referred to a past action in your statement, which means the rest of the sentence referred to that action must be in the past tense. When you have doubts related to this stuff, try to read your sentence out loud, it shall sound weird, since you are referring to an action in the past that has no involvement with the present.
-
Davyd, instead of telling people "to read it out loud and it will sound funny" it's usually better to offer solid grammar rules to support your answer and then offer examples to illustrate. Remember on ELL we aren't just providing answers to the person asking the question, but to anyone in the future searching for a similar answer.– AndrewCommented Dec 26, 2016 at 23:17
-
I gave an example and tried to explain why it isn't right, I think people want a short and direct answer, if they wanted to see Oxford grammar's book they would look up this on internet.– DavydCommented Dec 26, 2016 at 23:19
-
I guess I described exactly why it is incorrect, you referred to a past action in your statement, which means the rest of the sentence referred to that action must be in the past tense. - since you are referring to an action in the past that has no involvement with the present.– DavydCommented Dec 26, 2016 at 23:20
-
Also, while the phrase "whatever necessary" is not common, is is a valid English idiom. See this Ngram for relative usage and references, e.g. "I shall do whatever necessary for my king"– AndrewCommented Dec 26, 2016 at 23:21
-
1ELL is "looking it up on the Internet". This site is highly ranked on Google and answers posted here frequently show up at the top of searches. That's why we try and make our answers informed, accurate, and complete where possible.– AndrewCommented Dec 26, 2016 at 23:24