Questions tagged [past-tense]
This tag is for questions about the usage of tenses to refer to the past.
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Every father "behaved/behaves" very boldly before they "got/gets" married. - What are the nuances?
Example 1
Every father behaved very boldly before they got married.
Example 2
Every father behaves very boldly before they gets married.
What are the nuances between them?
My interpretation:
...
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it's high time or time
Do we always use past simple after "it's about time"?
It's about time we worked but it was about time we had worked or just worked and only past simple is acceptable after "it's time&...
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Why using the past tense when one parent is dead but the children and the other parent are alive?
John met Mary in 2000. He died in 2023. They had three children.
Marc met Ann in 2001. He is alive. They have two children.
What are the grammatical reasons for the last verbs to be in past and ...
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Is my explanation good enough to justify the use of past perfect
So here I am at 50 Beck Road.The house is a pretty regular two-up, two-down affair, with the front door squared up to the pavement, Coronation Street style .It is the home of performance artist ...
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Why do we use "would" in "My dog wouldn't let us catch him" for a past event that happened only once?
Look at this sentence, please
My dog didn't let us catch him
I do understand that sentence but some people would say it like that
My dog wouldn't let us catch him
Why is that? Why do we use would ...
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Past perfect usage in chronological stentences
I had eaten breakfast before I went to work.
Why do we use past perfect here since that sentence is chronological?
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Which action happened earlier?
Which action happened earlier in the following sentence:
“They had been wondering what had happened to their tent.”
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the best dancer I ever saw
a. When I was in high school, there was this guy in our class who was the best dancer I ever saw.
Would you say that sentence corresponds to
When I was in high school, there was this guy in our class ...
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Why past simple in this sentence of Jane Austen's book "Persuasion"?
I found this sentence in Persuasion by Jane Austen:
Till he came and had examined the child, their apprehensions were the worst for being vague; they suspected great injury, but knew not where; but ...
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Is the usage of the Past Perfect tense possible in the context provided? [duplicate]
According to the answer key section the correct tense to use in the second sentence is Past Simple. I wonder whether it is possible to use the Past Perfect tense form "had written" here.
...
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Without context, is there any difference between "had been cancelled" and "was cancelled"?
I have an example sentence that goes like this:
I rang the station, and they told me that the train had been cancelled.
Is there any difference between that sentence and:
I rang the station, and ...
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What tense do you use in this case?
Context: you're talking with the person and he's saying some new info for you.
How would you answer?
I didn't know this. (Past Simple)
I hadn't known this. (Past Perfect)
For me the second is more ...
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until today, does it include today
Until today, I have been getting on well with my boyfriend but this morning we had an argument and he made me cry
Is it possible to write that I don't think so:
"Until today" includes today ...
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tense with until today
I have paid my electric bills until now.
The change is imminent if there is one.
I had paid my electric bills until now.
The change has already been done meaning I had paid my electric bills until ...
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Past Tense or Present Perfect [duplicate]
He placed an order OR He has placed an order. He has now be waiting for three weeks but no goods have arrived.
My question is: Does the first sentence denote the starting point of the following ...
Franziska
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Does past perfect overlap past simple in this example?
She had been in labour for over 24 hours. They wheeled her off to the operating theatre, where she gave birth by caesarian to a healthy baby boy.
I found this sentence in an answer to this question: “...
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Would past simple change the meaning of the sentence?
While drinking his tea, Billy had realised that the sleeping dog
hadn't moved at all. The dog had been silent and motionless since Billy arrived. In fact, why would he have moved? He seemed to be so ...
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Meaning of "stockpile of smelling salts was on hand to accommodate fainters" [closed]
Steven Houghton, a theater employee, said a stockpile of smelling salts was on hand to accommodate fainters.
It is a sentence I read in New York Times. Stockpile of smelling salts was on hand to ...
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Why does Obi-Wan use 'were' in "He wanted you to have it when you were old enough"?
It's a phrase in Star Wars by Obi-Wan Kenobi: "He wanted you to have it when you were old enough." Why did he use the word "were" instead of "will be"?
(Regardless of the ...
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Difference between "I'm the one who..." and "I was the one who..."
Let's say I collected my mummy's money two hours ago and she asked this question:
"Who collected my money?"
Which would be the proper way to respond:
"I'm the one who collected the ...
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they thought it is or was important for the US to elect a woman president
Most Democratic voters in the state, 72 per cent, said they thought it is(was) important for the US to elect a woman president in their lifetimes, and that included roughly two-thirds of men.
What's ...
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Difference between "is come" and "has come"
What is the difference between the following two:
(A) The time is come for me to reveal what has lain hidden in my heart for so long.
(B) The time has come for me to reveal what has lain hidden in my ...
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Tense system of passage
Can one describe the following as using the Past Tense? I am not so sure.
I shrugged. It was clear that we'd stumbled into a prehistoric
gathering. The voice of a "drug expert" named ...
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For a sentence with logical conclusion shouldn't we use past pefect?
The question is as follow :
I ___ (see) him in the park so he can't be at home
I have always though that sentence like this with logical conclusion should always use past perfect tense because there ...
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Past tense while talking about future events
This article talks about expected situations next week:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/498549/parliament-protest-organisers-told-by-police-to-keep-it-peaceful
But some expected events are ...
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What time does "then" refer to in my example?
The other day I had my monthly pizza, wine and music playing session with Hank Meldrum again. I took this LP with me which I hadn't played in say 10 years. It didn't hit me then. The warmth and ...
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Two English grammar questions of past, past prefect
Before we had walked ten miles, he complained of sore feet.
Nobody had believed him when he said he was innocent.
(1) - Why is past perfect used in the before clause when the main clause is before?
(...
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Can we use “had” in present tense
I’ve got confused by this sentence from “A Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle:
“You had better clean it and load it. He will be a desperate man, and though I
shall take him unawares, it is as ...
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what’s the difference between “It's always been what I wanted" and “It's always been what I want”?
"It's always been what I wanted"
"It's always been what I want”
The first sentence doesn’t make much sense to me. Wouldn’t the “has always been” imply that’s still what they want ? Why ...
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Has shrank or has shrunk? [closed]
My sentence is:
The total number of unique patients that fits this criterion has shrank from 10 to 5.
But I'm not sure if instead I should say has shrunk?
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Can past perfect tense follow present perfect tense?
I read in an English grammar book "I have found the keys which I had lost". Why is past perfect being used? Shouldn't it be "I have found the keys which I lost".
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Why would a native speaker use "Could" while asking a question about a situation which she saw already completed?
A famous singer is being interviewed while shooting one of her music videos. In one scene, she actually jumps in a glass pool, which is supposed to be an aquarium in the video. Taylor's interview (see:...
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Should I use was or were: It _ the eyes
The whole sentence is : it wasn't the face that scared me, it _ the eyes. What do I use in the blank?
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I (have) never asked that question before. - Americans sometimes drop the "have"?
"I never asked that question before."
"I never said that."
From my memories I forgot where I heard this.
English speakers especially Americans sometimes use simple past to mean ...
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Combinig past and present tenses together
I've made a discovery that a phrase to be out of the question is an idiom, meaning to be an event that cannot possibly happen.
In a book (Charlotte Bronte - "Jane Eyre") I approached the ...
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Appending -ed to irregular verbs, obscure dialect? [closed]
Some examples (born->borned, saw->sawed):
Interview with Celia Black, Tyler, Texas, October 11, 1974 (audio, transcript)
Elmer Sparks (04:30): ...back when you were borned...
Elmer Sparks (04:...
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Why was I answered "yes it did" for this question "has the payment gone through?"?
I made an order through the net and as I was not sure my payment had gone through I sent an email(just after ordering) to be sure that the seller received it . So I asked "has my payment gone ...
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When to use past tense after reported speech and when to use present tense after it? [duplicate]
He said that he had visited Paris last year.
She said that she is currently working on a new project.
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"Didn't take" vs "Haven't taken" [duplicate]
I'm working on an animation and I need some help. There isn't much dialog but I'm confused about a phrase in particular: one of the characters is waiting for her friend to come from another country. ...
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why did the author choose past simple for something that people used to do before?
How Innovation Works And Why It Flourishes in Freed
Innovation has made it possible to work for a fraction of a second in order to be able to afford to turn on an electric lamp for an hour, providing ...
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will have said VS. would say
ex) I can't think why he was willing to say that it was my fault.
Now, for the purpose of making a sentence to have the same meaning of the example sentence, I would like to use modal auxiliary verb '...
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Why not "became" in "There is gradual improvement from the early 1990s until 2010, and then things become worse."
In the sentence:
There is gradual improvement from the early 1990s until 2010, and then things become
worse.
As worsen things happened in the past, so why not became instead of become?
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"I wasn't listening to what the teacher was saying"? "I didn't listen to what the teacher was saying"?
We often avoid repeating the continuous form, do we? Like you say
What do you think you are doing?
instead of
What are you thinking you are doing?
How about the following sentences?
I wasn't ...
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I don’t know how to word this question
Would I write it like this?
I ran fearfully down the hallway. The thought Vampires are real!? repeated in my head several times as I avoided the horrid beasts.
So like would it be correct to not ...
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"One thing interesting about the trip in Japan is/was that I tried the spicy ramen." - differences between "is" and "was"
Example 1
"One thing interesting about the trip in Japan is that I tried the spicy ramen."
Example 2
"One thing interesting about the trip in Japan was that I tried the spicy ramen.&...
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Why is the first example past perfect as both examples have the same meaning?
Could you cancel my first order, please? Since I thought my order hadn't gone through the first time, I tried again. However, I now realize it did work the first time. In other words, I accidentally ...
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Past Simple or Past Perfect in context of a story
we were creating a story and stumbled over this sentence:
I remembered the day when she had come up with an idea...
So in this sentence is it better to use Past Perfect or is it better to say "...
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Shall I use past perfect here?
I did not know they were still alive and kicking! I thought they split up for years
I was wondering if "had split" would be better. I don't think so because for years states that it ...
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Simple Past and Past Progressive - both possible in cases with defined period of time - Thomson (1986) says it should be Simple Past
I believe that the past progressive tense can be used with defined periods of time. However, A Practical English Grammar (A.J. Thomson, 1986) says that the simple past tense is used for well-defined ...
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"but only now did i finally do it" vs "but only now i finally did it". why does the first sound better?
but only now did i finally do it
but only now i finally did it
The first one sounds preferable, but I honestly don't know why. What is the exact grammar behind that kind of positioning of the verbs? ...
