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Johnson13 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
edited by
A sentence: The book has been/is/ was edited by David Crystal.
HAS BEEN is used because the past action leads to a result that is still true, eg the cover of the book bears his name.
IS is used because the act of editing is a recent event, and I am still reading the book edited by him.
WAS is used simply because the act of editing must be a past event. (But it sounds strange, because when I am still reading the book, using a tense to show a sense of distancing seems inappropriate)
Could you tell me which reason is correct?
HAS BEEN is used because the past action leads to a result that is still true, eg the cover of the book bears his name.
IS is used because the act of editing is a recent event, and I am still reading the book edited by him.
WAS is used simply because the act of editing must be a past event. (But it sounds strange, because when I am still reading the book, using a tense to show a sense of distancing seems inappropriate)
Could you tell me which reason is correct?
Top answer
The book was edited by David Crystal. David Crystal is the editor of the book. All your tenses do make sense, as you say, but English doesn't always.
- The book was edited by David Crystal.
- David Crystal is the editor of the book.
- All your tenses do make sense, as you say, but English doesn't always.
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3 Answers
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The book was edited by David Crystal.
David Crystal is the editor of the book.
All your tenses do make sense, as you say, but English doesn't always.
David Crystal is the editor of the book.
All your tenses do make sense, as you say, but English doesn't always.
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Thanks.
So you think in the above WAS is the only possible tense?Besides the above, I know we can say the book WAS/IS written by someone.
Is HAS BEEN not applicable here for the same reason?
Does it also mean 'what I wrote here is' cannot be changed into 'what I've written here is'?
So you think in the above WAS is the only possible tense?Besides the above, I know we can say the book WAS/IS written by someone.
Is HAS BEEN not applicable here for the same reason?
Does it also mean 'what I wrote here is' cannot be changed into 'what I've written here is'?
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Johnson13So you think in the above WAS is the only possible tense?Yes.
Johnson13Besides the above, I know we can say the book WAS/IS written by someone."Is" is rarely called for, if ever. I think that people mistakenly allow the literary present to spill out into the real world sometimes when writing of such things. When "
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