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Qingqing Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
About the tense of "be"
Please read the first paragraph of an article:
Andrea Davis Pinkney's mother is a teacher and her father is a great storyteller, so growing up surrounded by books and stories is what inspired Andrea Davis Pinkney to choose a career as an author.
If we make a statement about it. Is it right to say "From the paragraph we can know the reason why Pinkney chose to be a writer is her parents' influence on her."
Is the underlined word "is" right here? Should we change is into "was"?
Another three examples:
The reason why he was late was that the alarm clock didn't work.
This is the reason why he was late.
The reason why he was late is uncertain.
Although Pinkney's mother is still a teacher and her father is still a storyteller now, the action of his choosing a career as an auther happened in the past. So we should use "was". Right? Thanks.
Andrea Davis Pinkney's mother is a teacher and her father is a great storyteller, so growing up surrounded by books and stories is what inspired Andrea Davis Pinkney to choose a career as an author.
If we make a statement about it. Is it right to say "From the paragraph we can know the reason why Pinkney chose to be a writer is her parents' influence on her."
Is the underlined word "is" right here? Should we change is into "was"?
Another three examples:
The reason why he was late was that the alarm clock didn't work.
This is the reason why he was late.
The reason why he was late is uncertain.
Although Pinkney's mother is still a teacher and her father is still a storyteller now, the action of his choosing a career as an auther happened in the past. So we should use "was". Right? Thanks.
Top answer
Correct. Use "was" because the decision took place in the past. It remains the reason (thus the use of "is" in the quoted sentence) but the chosing was in the past.
- Correct.
- Use "was" because the decision took place in the past.
- It remains the reason (thus the use of "is" in the quoted sentence) but the chosing was in the past.
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1 Answers
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Correct. Use "was" because the decision took place in the past. It remains the reason (thus the use of "is" in the quoted sentence) but the chosing was in the past.
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