0

Context: "I never imagined this letter accounts for the events of that evening."

The sentence is taken from a written testimony. The author states that she hadn't known a fact until she did an action (read the letter). Since the letter still exists and remains true to her statement (it still accounts for the events of that evening), the author used the present tense for the verb account.

In my opinion, the tenses of the sentence don't mix well. I'd rather use the present perfect for imagine, and then account in the present simple. What do you think, is her suggestion fine, or should the sentence be edited?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    I agree with you. "I never imagined that this letter might account for the events..." would be more idiomatic.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 15:16
  • 1
    Even more likely, ...never imagined it would... (Presumably the letter did account for events once found and examined, so it's not necessary to convey any implications of a "possible explanation". But I certainly wouldn't "correct" a native speaker who used the cited version. It's not that "inelegant".
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 15:28
  • Did you consider past perfect? Surely she now imagines the contents of the letter as they stand in fact, now that she's become acquainted with the letter's accounts. The phrasing "I had never imagined..." works with an implication something like "until I learned the truth." Then again, so does the simple past construction. That choice might boil down to emphasis, personal taste and dialectic preference. A present-tense construction (like you suggest) would imply that she still doesn't know better at the time of her utterance -- but the author clearly disagrees with that.
    – Gary Botnovcan
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 17:18

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .