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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Correct and meaningful?
Hi teachers,
Here is a sentence:
Celebrities whose suicide was reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
My teacher said that the underlined part should be expressed in present tense otherwise it would be incorrect. But I don't agree with him. I think this sentence is both grammatically correct and meaningful. I'm asking this question because both me and my teacher aren't native speakers of English.
Thanks in advance.
Here is a sentence:
Celebrities whose suicide was reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
My teacher said that the underlined part should be expressed in present tense otherwise it would be incorrect. But I don't agree with him. I think this sentence is both grammatically correct and meaningful. I'm asking this question because both me and my teacher aren't native speakers of English.
Thanks in advance.
Top answer
Anonymous My teacher said that the underlined part should be expressed in present tense otherwise it would be incorrect. Actually, you can use either present or past. Both are correct.
- Anonymous My teacher said that the underlined part should be expressed in present tense otherwise it would be incorrect.
- Actually, you can use either present or past.
- Both are correct.
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6 Answers
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AnonymousMy teacher said that the underlined part should be expressed in present tense otherwise it would be incorrect.Actually, you can use either present or past. Both are correct.
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Hi all,
Celebrities whose suicide was reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
I'm confused.
I am also not a native speaker but I think this sentence isn't grammatically correct in terms of writing rules. I think it violates tense agreement. Am I wrong? I also think that this sentence isn't meaningful because of the past us
Celebrities whose suicide was reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
I'm confused.
I am also not a native speaker but I think this sentence isn't grammatically correct in terms of writing rules. I think it violates tense agreement. Am I wrong? I also think that this sentence isn't meaningful because of the past us
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AnonymousI think this sentence isn't grammatically correct in terms of writing rules. I think it violates tense agreement.I don't know of any 'rules' that prescribe tense agreement in such cases as this. As a speaker of British English, I would use 'are' or 'have been there', but 'were' does not seem incorrect to me.
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The complaint I have is not the tense in the relative clause, but the number:
Celebrities whose suicides were reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
Obviously, the copycat suicides occur after the reports appeared in the newspapers; that is one reason that the past tense is OK.
I assume that the celebrity's
Celebrities whose suicides were reported in newspapers cause 14 times as many people to copy them as do other suicides.
Obviously, the copycat suicides occur after the reports appeared in the newspapers; that is one reason that the past tense is OK.
I assume that the celebrity's
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I think the whole premise of the original sentence is strange (although I realize that's not the point here). When people kill themselves, how does anyone know who they're copying? How did they come up with this very specific statistic?
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