New answers tagged sequence-of-tenses
0
This looks more like an attempt to use tenses rather than to communicate... That usually make bad English.
Firstly there is no need for the past perfect "hadn't you said". The past perfect is rare, and you should often just use the past tense instead.
Why didn't you say...
Also "tell" is a better verb than "say" in this ...
1
It could not have snowed on 25th of September.
This is a statement about the past.
It would have been a disaster without your help.
This is also a statement about the past. Things passed off without a disaster, thanks to your help.
It should have outperformed the other tests.
This, too, is a statement about the past. The tests have already taken place....
3
You're using the past tense to talk about events in the movie you've finished watching. So, you should continue to do so:
They created a device that was able to send people into the past.
You'd only use "is able", in the present tense, if it would also make sense for you to say:
The device is able to send people into the past.
Present tense ...
1
They created a device that was able to send people into the past.
This is the correct format. When narrating to someone you need to include past tenses in both places, "created" and "was".
Examples for simple present to simple past would be:
Direct: She said, “I work at New York Times.”
Indirect: She said that she worked at New York ...
0
Rather than a difference in timeframe, I would expect that "could not have been" is referring to a reason (whether left unsaid, tacked onto the end of the sentence or in a previous sentence), whereas the first sentence is a simple statement of fact.
It was not snowing last Friday.
It's one of the hottest Septembers on record. It could not have ...
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They convey different meanings.
“It was not possible that day”
(What you were doing, was impossible that day even if someone would have helped you)
“It could not have been possible.”
It’s incomplete you need to complete it:
“It could not have been possible that day without you. You helped me, and it became possible.”
What you were doing, became finished that ...
0
I think both of the sentences with "could not" are redundant as to impossibility. I don't know what they might mean. Have you ever seen them in use?
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When we use simple past tense after the "if" in a conditional sentence, we are talking about something hypothetical happening now or in the future, which has a future result. (2nd conditional)
If I won the lottery I would buy a big house
If I didn't have to work so much, I would play more sport.
But in this case, the call was received in the past,...
1
There are different ways that you can say someone can do something in a variety of tenses, for example:
He can drive.
He drives.
I didn't know he drove.
I didn't know he could drive.
Looking at your example, "I have never heard she speaks English" is not grammatically correct.
The most idiomatic ways to say this would be:
I didn't know she spoke ...
2
The two similar sentences are not necessarily identical in meaning.
To say last week or yesterday are specified periods of time. Last week is the week before the current week. Yesterday is the day before today.
But both the week before and the day before prompt the question: Before what?
The week/day before could refer to the week/day before Christmas. So ...
1
The grammar phenomenon you are referring to is called backshift, used in situations where a sequence of tenses occur in a single clause such as reported speech. In general backshift is needed in such sentences.
Joe said he was going to the mall.
When Joe is speaking, the content of his speech is "I am going to the mall." And he is talking about ...
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Although your meaning is clear in each of these, none of them are actually natural English.
Instead, try:
Recently, I have been practicing more.
or
I've been practicing more than I had previously.
or
I have recently been practicing more than I used to.
You do not need to use both 'recently' and 'in the past' to make that comparison.
The placement of '...
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