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Johnson13 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
in my time I have heard...
In 'Religion and Rocketry' is a sentence:
In my time I have heard two quite different arguments against my religion put forward in the name of science.
The writer clearly refers to the days before, and this period is a detached one from the present, so I would use the simple past tense I HEARD, and IN MY TIME is a clear time reference. But do you think the present perfect is possible?
In my time I have heard two quite different arguments against my religion put forward in the name of science.
The writer clearly refers to the days before, and this period is a detached one from the present, so I would use the simple past tense I HEARD, and IN MY TIME is a clear time reference. But do you think the present perfect is possible?
Top answer
In my time refers here to an unspecified period from my birth up to and including the present. If you say simple 'In my time I heard . .
- In my time refers here to an unspecified period from my birth up to and including the present.
- If you say simple 'In my time I heard .
- .
- ', it implies that your time is now finished, eg Perhaps you are dead and speaking from Heaven.
- Clive
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6 Answers
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In my time refers here to an unspecified period from my birth up to and including the present.
If you say simple 'In my time I heard . . . ', it implies that your time is now finished, eg Perhaps you are dead and speaking from Heaven.
If you say simple 'In my time I heard . . . ', it implies that your time is now finished, eg Perhaps you are dead and speaking from Heaven.
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Thanks.
The other day I discussed the IN MY LIFE problem (I ever saw, not HAVE SEEN, in my life), and people gave similar reasons.
But I had this question because I thought IN MY TIME meant something like this:
In those old days when I WAS a school boy....
Do you think my explanation is not acceptable?
The other day I discussed the IN MY LIFE problem (I ever saw, not HAVE SEEN, in my life), and people gave similar reasons.
But I had this question because I thought IN MY TIME meant something like this:
In those old days when I WAS a school boy....
Do you think my explanation is not acceptable?
00
Thanks.
According to your explanation, should HAPPENED change to HAS HAPPENED?
Yet such was the magnitude of what happened in Russia in this century that all the genres available to prose were, and still are, in one way or another, shot through with this tragedy's mesmerizing presence.
If not, is it
According to your explanation, should HAPPENED change to HAS HAPPENED?
Yet such was the magnitude of what happened in Russia in this century that all the genres available to prose were, and still are, in one way or another, shot through with this tragedy's mesmerizing presence.
If not, is it
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Johnson13 I thought IN MY TIME meant something like this:In those old days when I WAS a school boy....No. It means something closer to "in my life (up to and including now)", i.e., "in all the time I have been alive".
It's not the same as "at that time", which is a definite time reference and would not be used with the present perfect.
CJ
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Johnson13 is it for the same reason that when we use TODAY to denote the time we can use the past tense or the present perfect tense?Exactly.
CJ
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Hi,
I thought IN MY TIME meant something like this:
In those old days when I WAS a school boy....
Yes, it can have that meaning.
eg
This article says that high-school students are rude to their teachers.
I thought IN MY TIME meant something like this:
In those old days when I WAS a school boy....
Yes, it can have that meaning.
eg
This article says that high-school students are rude to their teachers.
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