Is this phrase grammatically incorrect?

Question

"i was at my most eloquent"This is the context in which the phrase is taken from:I just finished watching   "Finding Forrester" and I'm missing my 3rd and 4th year of high school   when I was at my most eloquent because of my superb English teacher.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

AnonymousIs this phrase grammatically incorrect?
"i was at my most eloquent" It would be perfect if it had a capital letter and a period (personal pronoun, "I").

The longer sentence from which it's extracted is not exactly clear. Did you skip two years of high school because of your academic excellence?
I'd use a comma after "eloquent."
You could use past perfect for your first verb, but it's not required.

Anonymous · Answer

Sorry about the lowercase "I". lol Internet typing has dumbed me down. However, about the "period", I was quoting it as a phrase, so there should be no period, right?

Anyhow, about the longer sentence... No I did not skip two years of high school. I meant that I missed them like...you know, like you miss someone..

Also, I do not understand why a comma is needed after "eloquent" especially since it is followed by "because", please elaborate.

Lastly, which verb were you referring to that I could have used past perfect for? And, what's past perfect again? lol

Anyway, just to clarify, punctuation aside and less than ideal clarity of the sentence itself, was there anything incorrect with my grammar in the original longer sentence?

Thank you for your reply.

Avangi · Answer

Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Got it! If you had addeda period, it would have been a perfect sentence.

(That's past perfect, by the way - the first clause.)

Re the comma, it's not essential. But by making the last clause "essential," it's sort of a bridge too far. It leaves me breathless. That's your fourth clause in that sentence, and without the comma, every idea is a new one. It's just too much (for me, anyway).

The sentence is grammatical.
The tense switch from simple past to present is a common narrative stylistic device. It's called "historical present." You're describing something which happened in the past, and then you suddenly switch to present continuous for dramatic effect.

I just finished eating my ice cream and I'm missing my mum.

There are a lot of ways to look at this tense situation.
What you have is fine. (Your explanation puts a different complexion on it.)

Technically, most grammarians would say you can't use past perfect tense without a simple past tense reference:
I had just finished eating my ice cream and I was missing my mum. .

You could argue that what you have is not historical present:
I just ran twenty laps and I'm tired. (simple past; simple present)
(Yours is actually present continuous/progressive - "I am missing X.")

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you!

Anonymous · Answer

I enjoy eating icecream

Is this phrase grammatically incorrect?

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