Are you ever...
Are you ever persuaded to sing in front of a crowd of people?
Is the question above about a one-off persuasion made in the past?
Top answer
Hi No, the tense is simple present. The sentence is cast as passive and as a question but, if we leave that to one side, the tense is the same as in: - I play football every Saturday That means that I have done so in past, expect to do so in the future and, if I say it during a match on Saturday then it is happening in the present too The same is true of your sentence: it asks whether it has happened in the past, one or more times. And if I say yes, I'm implying that it might happen again There isn't really a simple past tense that implies a one-off event.
- Hi No, the tense is simple present.
- The sentence is cast as passive and as a question but, if we leave that to one side, the tense is the same as in: - I play football every Saturday That means that I have done so in past, expect to do so in the future and, if I say it during a match on Saturday then it is happening in the present too The same is true of your sentence: it asks whether it has happened in the past, one or more times.
- And if I say yes, I'm implying that it might happen again There isn't really a simple past tense that implies a one-off event.
- You might say: - Were you once persuaded to sing in front of a crowd of people?
- And then a reply might be: - Yes, but only once!
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Hi
No, the tense is simple present. The sentence is cast as passive and as a question but, if we leave that to one side, the tense is the same as in:
- I play football every Saturday
That means that I have done so in past, expect to do so in the future and, if I say it during a match on Saturday then it is happening in the present too
The same is true of your sentence: i
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