Find mistake in the sentence plz.

Question

In 1960, the Director thought we must all be retiring by the year 2000.(A) thought(B) must(C) retiring(D) byI think its "Retiring" but is the correct form will be "Retried" ?Please suggest.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

amit82the Director thought we must

... thought we would all be retiring ...

CJ

Grammarfreak · Answer

amit82In 1960, the Director thought we must all be retiring by the year 2000.(A) thought(B) must(C) retiring(D) byI think its "Retiring" but is the correct form will be "Retried" ?Please suggest.

Hi,
My take is, this is not a well composed sentence as posted. In fact, it sounded quite unnatural and syntactically awkward in my opinion.

I see no reason to capitalize "director" when there wasn't any special title reference mentioned.
The choices A- C are non-answers to the question. As CJ suggested, the time was 1960 looking forward, "would " is a better word for the context, but it wasn't in your multiple choices. The verb " retire" is one of those that can be used in present continous, past and "ed " participle form. So in my opnion, your hunch was reasonable for the question. If I have only 1 months of service remaining before my 20^th anniversayin with a company, I could tell people: " I am retiring next month"; or " I will be retiring next month".
A month later, I ran into a high school friend, Frankie, in a coffee shop and I may say one of these: " I am retired now" ,
or " I've just retired recently". Whatever verb form you choose, it should relfect your time perspective. Otherwise, it would create semantic issues. like this one. Just my two cents....

Amit82 · Answer

Hi CJ and GF,

Thanks so much for your input and really appreciate your explanations.

so, the ans should be B. MUST. and the correct format should be "We would all be retiring" rather "We must all be retiring".

Please confirm.

CalifJim · Answer

amit82Please confirm.

Confirmed.

CJ

Find mistake in the sentence plz.

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