37
votes
Why is this sentence wrong "He wasn't a stranger because I have met him before"?
The verb tenses do not agree. "He was not" requires "I had met". Or, you could use "He is not" with "I have met".
Both tenses need to be in agreement. However, if speaking this to a native English ...
- 1,296
15
votes
Accepted
"The job springboarded him into the profession at which he <would eventually excel> <eventually excelled>."— Why can we need the variant with "would"?
In terms of the timeline of what happened, both "would eventually excel" and "eventually excelled" have the same meaning: the job got him into the profession, and after some time, ...
- 48.9k
13
votes
"The job springboarded him into the profession at which he <would eventually excel> <eventually excelled>."— Why can we need the variant with "would"?
As is so often the case, a lot depends on context and the nuance of one’s intended meaning. Sentence 1 (with would) sits more firmly fixed in that moment when the springboarding originally took place. ...
- 5,850
8
votes
The teacher told us that ice {floats/floated} on water
Many native speakers, when reporting indirectly what someone has said, will cast the verb in the past without really thinking about it, as second-nature:
She told us ice floated on water.
That is ...
- 121k
8
votes
Accepted
She told me that she HAS / HAD a gun
Both are perfectly correct. The meanings are not exactly the same, and you would use one or the other in different situations.
She told me she has a gun.
Use this form if the situation is ongoing ...
- 12.2k
8
votes
"He works/worked hard so that he will be promoted."
Example #1 means 1a. To get sense 1b, remove the word that from #1.
Example #2 is a potentially awkward mix of tenses, but it's essentially the same thing
Example #2 means 2a, and #2 without that ...
- 68.7k
7
votes
Indirect speech: is "has been" acceptable in “…the matter has been taken up with Saudi authorities”?
Yes, has been is grammatically correct, even in indirect speech in the past tense. Indeed, the tense (has been vs. had been) indicates an important distinction! Has been implies that what the speaker ...
- 27.5k
7
votes
Changing the verb for indirect quote/reported speech expressing habitual actions
In reported speech, the tense of the verbs in the reported speech is normally backshifted.
I am ready
He said he was ready
There are, however, exceptions. If the original statement is a general ...
- 59.1k
7
votes
Accepted
past tense of "should"
Should (referring to the past) versus should have + past participle
"Should have" + past participle is a perfect construction, referring to a completed action. It tends to imply "......
- 23k
6
votes
Why is this sentence wrong "He wasn't a stranger because I have met him before"?
Actually, I tend to think of the issue with this sentence as a logical one, rather than grammatical (although of course most grammatical rules are meant to be logical). In fact, there is no ...
- 161
6
votes
Accepted
Confusion about "Backshift" of Verbs in Indirect Speech (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Your concern seems to be this: "Why doesn't the author backshift the verbs in reports of Jem's simple past statements to the past perfect?"
I think the best answer is simply that we don't always do ...
6
votes
Changing the verb for indirect quote/reported speech expressing habitual actions
I agree that options 2 and 3 are correct if they still pray every day and that only option 3 is correct if they no longer pray every day.
But the question as given is select the one which best ...
- 36.3k
5
votes
Accepted
How should I handl mixed tenses or tense agreements?
It's worth remembering that morphologically, English only has two tenses (present, and "not-present").
By morphological I mean that verbs themselves are only modified for tense by adding -ed to make "...
- 68.7k
5
votes
Accepted
confusion over which tense: Present Simple or?
Actually I sent you a message to ask if you are alright when I heard the earthquake news ...
If you wanted to know if your friend is safe and sound
now, you can ask:
How are you?; Is everything OK?; ...
- 26.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Report of a truth
You might not have to backshift, but it is quite natural to do so, especially if the context is talking about what John said. Imagine the context.
So Henry, this afternoon you'll be meeting the ...
- 203k
5
votes
Report of a truth
We don't have to backshift "when reporting a truth" - but in fact we usually do, as is clearly shown by this usage chart...
Almost every matching occurrence above will continue with ...the ...
- 68.7k
5
votes
"The job springboarded him into the profession at which he <would eventually excel> <eventually excelled>."— Why can we need the variant with "would"?
Further to Paul Tanenbaum's answer, the sentence is a story in miniature, talking about an event in the past that springboarded him into a profession. From the perspective of that moment in the past ...
- 3,147
4
votes
How to backshift epistemic 'would'
I looked up Quirk et al.'s Comprehensive Grammar, and it says (Unit 14.34):
If a modal auxiliary in the direct speech is already in the past tense form,
then the same form remains in the ...
- 36.5k
4
votes
Indirect speech: is "has been" acceptable in “…the matter has been taken up with Saudi authorities”?
With "reported speech" the important thing is to explain the information, not the words, to your listener. The information need to be true and make sense to your listener now. It doesn't matter what ...
4
votes
Does this sentence make sense? "I got married to her for seven years."
"To get" means to become, to enter into a particular existential state. "Get" refers to the action as it happens, not to an ongoing state or condition.
My shoe got wet when I stepped into the puddle.
...
- 121k
4
votes
Report of a truth
It depends on whether that person is referring to an instance or a general truth.
If it's a general and fixed truth, present tense is retained, since the statement applies to the present as well as ...
- 1,727
3
votes
Backshifting 'could' and 'would' in a work of fiction
(1) I could have broken his grip
Here "have broken ..." is in the present perfect tense, which denotes a present state due to a past action. By itself it would denote a past breaking of "his grip" ...
- 1,365
3
votes
The teacher told us that ice {floats/floated} on water
'Ice floating on water' is not something from the past alone. It is applicable today, Ice will float on water tomorrow too, as it did yesterday and as it did millions of years ago too. So we cannot ...
- 8,248
3
votes
confusion over which tense: Present Simple or?
You are talking about the past, no matter the earthquake happened recently. So You use "were" instead of "are". Moreover,the use of the noun "news" means that you are referring to the information or ...
- 27.1k
3
votes
Sequence of tenses for facts irrelevant of the moment of speech
There is no grammatical requirement, when reporting what was said in the past, to use the present tense if the assertion is true in the present.
The professor said Pluto took more than 200 Earth-...
- 121k
3
votes
'would have had to
Use of the modals is tricky, because they have only two forms to cover a multitude of meanings. As a gross simplification:
If you wanted to watch that movie, you would have to ...
The sentence you ...
- 175k
3
votes
"until something" in reported speech
Both are fine. In reported speech you can often backshift or not, without significantly changing the meaning. Native speakers don't even notice the difference, as it's often unimportant. Example:
...
- 88.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Should I treat quotes from God as universal truth for narration?
Either version is grammatically acceptable and understandable: the choice might depend to some extent on the writer's viewpoint.
If the writer is an atheist scholar who is reporting Hindu myths, the ...
- 59.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Should I backshift with "If you ever wondered..."?
Normally, with an embedded question or statement in a past-tense sentence, the verb in the embedded part is also past:
Where is he going? -> I wondered where he was going.
But when the question ...
- 73.7k
3
votes
Accepted
future in reported speech when reporting verb is in the past
Backshifting may not be necessary sometimes.
From Cambridge dictionary:
We don’t need to change the tense in indirect speech if what a person said is still true or relevant or has not happened yet....
- 100
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