Can you help me correct three sentences? Thank you.

Question

One hundred years ago, the only way to contact friends was to write letters and it probably would take a few months to arrive at your friends’ houses. But technology has made long distance communication possible. We can chat with our friends whenever we are and wherever we are.

Terryxpress · Accepted Answer

...it probably would take a few months
Think carefully about the tense of the verb form you have used here.

...chat with our friends whenever we are
Wow! Technology is more advanced than I realized. It's all geared up ready to meet the needs of the modern day Time Traveller.
Think about what this means.

Jiangyueming · Answer

Thank you. Here is my revision: "it probably took a few months."
Is there any other mistake? Thanks.

Terryxpress · Answer

When I wrote quoted...
...chat with our friends whenever we are and...
Wow! Technology is more advanced than I realized. It's all geared up ready to meet the needs of the modern day Time Traveller.
...I should have added, but since we may have modern technology right now, we do not have time travel. So, what's wrong here.

"It probably took a few months."
This is certainly a good, grammatically correct alternative.
Before I discuss the difference, can you see that the 'would take' form is also a possibility, but that how you have formed the tense is incorrect.

Jiangyueming · Answer

Thanks again. But I don't know what's wrong with this sentence"it probably would take a few months"
"Would" is past tense and I suppose to use past tense here. Right?

The other sentence, do you mean that I can't talk to guys who lived in the past? How about this "chat with our friends whenever we go"

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi jiangyueming,

jiangyuemingOne hundred years ago, the only way to contact friends was to write letters and it probably would take a few months to arrive at your friends’ houses

One thousand years ago, people had barely started using paper and sending letter to a friend was a hit- and miss event. There was no real guarantee that your friend would see your. But one thing was certain, there was no postal service. If the letters did arrive, they may have taken months on horseback.

jiangyueming But technology has made long distance communication possible. We can chat with our friends whenever we are and wherever we are.

The highlighted "adverbial clause" has structural problem.
These are alternatives: We can chat with our friends whenever and wherever we want.
We can chat with our friends no matter where we are and what time it is.
We can chat with our friends at any time and any place.

Can you help me correct three sentences? Thank you.

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