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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

I thought she is...

I'm an English teacher in Poland, and I've noticed this strange grammar pattern here. I hear a lot of verb tense inconsistency, specifically with "thinking" type verbs. Examples, "I met her and I thought she is pretty" or "I talked to him and I realized he is unhappy". Usually a native speaker would have said "I met her and I thought she was pretty" or I talked to him and I realized that he was unhappy." So, my question is, what exactly is this grammar point, and how can I dig into it with my students? I notice it with all kinds of "thinking" verbs like: decide, know, mean, realize, thought, etc. I don't even know what to google for this. I know that it comes from L1 interference - my students are directly translating Polish. I wish I could put a name to it so I could find some info on it, and some exercises related to it. Anyone have any ideas?
  

Top answer

I'm Polish. Indeed, it's strange for us, Poles, to use the back-shift in tenses. e.

— Anonymous

  • I'm Polish.
  • Indeed, it's strange for us, Poles, to use the back-shift in tenses.
  • e.
  • * He said he will be late.
  • The only way to overcome the Polish idiomatic 'copy' introduced into sort of 'Polish' English is to explain students the grammar usage of the back-shift of tenses and drill them how to use it.
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2 Answers
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I'm Polish. Indeed, it's strange for us, Poles, to use the back-shift in tenses. For us, if he said something in the past using the present tense we say it like your students, i.e. *He said he will be late. The only way to overcome the Polish idiomatic 'copy' introduced into sort of 'Polish' English is to explain students the grammar usage of the back-shift of tenses and drill them how to u
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AnonymousI've noticed this strange grammar pattern here.
Don't feel like The Lone Ranger. The same pattern comes up among many groups of English learners.
AnonymousSo, my question is, what exactly is this grammar point, and how can I dig into it with my students?
The only name I can think of as the topic in question is "Seq
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