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So my friend says,

"I guess it was inspired from Y movie #X movie"

I corrected him by making a small change to the sentence,

"I guess it is inspired by Y movie #Xmovie"

X movie is about to release. Am I correct ?

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  • Why would you correct him if you weren't sure?
    – Black Jack 21
    Aug 10, 2020 at 9:11

3 Answers 3

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Okay, so you have two points here: the tense of your sentence (was or is) and the phrasing of "inspired from." As Arrowfar stated, "inspired by" is the correct phrase. When it comes to tense in this case, though, it's a little ambiguous. Referring to events in literature or film, I believe the rule is that you always speak in past tense, i.e. Frodo THREW the ring into Mount Doom, instead of Frodo is throwing the ring into Mount Doom. However, you're presumably talking about the creator of whatever work of art you're talking about, not the work of art itself. Having said that, it's safe to assume past tense here, since artists are inspired to create their piece before they even start working on it.

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  • No we are talking about a movie that is about to release but not yet released.
    – Aditya
    Sep 17, 2014 at 21:50
  • The movie old boy IS inspired sounds kinda more familiar than the movie old boy WAS inspired right ? The comments on the second answer states that both of em are right. If you ask me both of em sounds right.
    – Aditya
    Sep 17, 2014 at 21:52
  • Yes, I understand that. The correct tense would still be past (was) because the director did not get inspired to make his film in post-production. He was inspired before he even began making the movie. Edit: Well, I am a native English speaker and I studied grammar quite closely in school, but if you want to say whatever you think "sounds right" then I guess I can't stop you.
    – Crazy Eyes
    Sep 17, 2014 at 21:52
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Yes the correct English is "inspired by". For example, a song inspired by the novel xyz.

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  • the was to is change is justified too right ?
    – Aditya
    Sep 17, 2014 at 21:42
  • @Aditya Yes, 'was' and 'is' are both correct here.
    – user6200
    Sep 17, 2014 at 21:43
  • @Aditya Yes you are right. But as I said both can be used. See this example from wikipedia "Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen is inspired by "The Snow Queen""
    – user6200
    Sep 17, 2014 at 22:13
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There are really three issues here:

  1. Which preposition?

    As others have noted, the correct preposition to use after inspired is by, not from. I'm not sure that there is necessarily a logical reason; that's just how it is.

  2. Which tense?

    Unless you are talking about the very early stages of creating the movie, when the script is still being written, the inspiration is an event that happened in the past. That's true even if the movie has not been released yet. Therefore, you should use the past tense: was inspired by.

  3. How to put the sentence together?

    An example of a correct sentence would be:

    I guess West Side Story was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

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