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Alc24 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Important please help me with tenses and a few sentences
I'm translating a book for a friend, this is a page of it, and I was having trouble with the sentences I highlighted. Also I don't know what tense to use after a character speaks, if I should use " she would say or she said" Can you use both or do you have to choose one a and stick to it?
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My parents being scientists at heart and all, they were in complete disagreement with the studies I has chosen to follow, not to mention the fact that I would go out with friends and was more of a drawing, reading kind of girl. I was taking liberal arts.
I think what really bothered them was that I wanted to travel the world and learn as many languages as possible. Its hard having parent who only swear by studies. I had started looking for places to live abroad, but to no avail until one day 3 months ago, I came across a site offering a student exchange program to the United States for a year. That though wasn't my first pick as I had already learnt to speak English and wanted to go the South America where I could learn to speak Spanish. That same night I had called the number on the site and had received an application within the following 2 days. The deadline for applications was the first week of April and it was already the end of March. I had to talk to my parents about it to try and convince them. Convincing them turned out to be easier than expected. They said/would say that I could leave on one condition; if I had past my exams.
I opened my apartment door
Mom, dad, Guess what, I passed. I'm finally leaving.
My parents weren't as happy as I thought they would be.
“Leona, imagine it starts up again there. Your host family won't know what to think. They won't understand you, to say the least.” /says/said/would say my dad, so embarrassed, looking at my mom instead of me.
“You guys have never understood me either and for the last time, it's in the past. Why talk about it after so long?”
“We haven't spoken about my “thing” for a few years now.”
That's what they called it.
“We're saying all this for your own sake. Don't take it badly, sweetheart. If you are sure that's what you want, then we have no problem with it”
“Like your dad and I had said, you pass your exams, you get to leave. I'll go ahead and confirm your trip” my mom said./would say
I cut the conversation that we had/would have short by going up to my room.
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Thank you
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My parents being scientists at heart and all, they were in complete disagreement with the studies I has chosen to follow, not to mention the fact that I would go out with friends and was more of a drawing, reading kind of girl. I was taking liberal arts.
I think what really bothered them was that I wanted to travel the world and learn as many languages as possible. Its hard having parent who only swear by studies. I had started looking for places to live abroad, but to no avail until one day 3 months ago, I came across a site offering a student exchange program to the United States for a year. That though wasn't my first pick as I had already learnt to speak English and wanted to go the South America where I could learn to speak Spanish. That same night I had called the number on the site and had received an application within the following 2 days. The deadline for applications was the first week of April and it was already the end of March. I had to talk to my parents about it to try and convince them. Convincing them turned out to be easier than expected. They said/would say that I could leave on one condition; if I had past my exams.
I opened my apartment door
Mom, dad, Guess what, I passed. I'm finally leaving.
My parents weren't as happy as I thought they would be.
“Leona, imagine it starts up again there. Your host family won't know what to think. They won't understand you, to say the least.” /says/said/would say my dad, so embarrassed, looking at my mom instead of me.
“You guys have never understood me either and for the last time, it's in the past. Why talk about it after so long?”
“We haven't spoken about my “thing” for a few years now.”
That's what they called it.
“We're saying all this for your own sake. Don't take it badly, sweetheart. If you are sure that's what you want, then we have no problem with it”
“Like your dad and I had said, you pass your exams, you get to leave. I'll go ahead and confirm your trip” my mom said./would say
I cut the conversation that we had/would have short by going up to my room.
------------------
Thank you
Top answer
We are going to have real fun here. You are being very brave. When translating documents or speech, it is really quite straight forward, but, once you enter the realm of literature, it can get very sticky.
- We are going to have real fun here.
- You are being very brave.
- When translating documents or speech, it is really quite straight forward, but, once you enter the realm of literature, it can get very sticky.
- 'Creative writing' does generally follow the rules of grammar and language that you've already learnt, but the author will have had to make a decision when starting the book about the tense they will write in.
- It is not surprising, therefore, that you are having a little difficulty here.
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1 Answers
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We are going to have real fun here. You are being very brave. When translating documents or speech, it is really quite straight forward, but, once you enter the realm of literature, it can get very sticky. 'Creative writing' does generally follow the rules of grammar and language that you've already learnt, but the author will have had to make a decision when starting the book about the tense the
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