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Park sang joon Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

It [turns out/ turned out]

A: It [turns out/ turned out] the one is it's student who set the fire on St. Georgia High School.
I think if A thinks readers, listeners, or listener knows what he says, he should use "it turns out," and if not, he should use "it turned out."
And I'd like to know if my thought is right.
Thank you in advance for your help.
  

Top answer

The sentence has a few mistakes and so the meaning is not 100% clear. My guess is this: "It turns out that it was a student who set fire to X School". If the speaker had found out the identity of the arsonist only recently, he would say "turns out".

— Michael Chambers Teaching English

  • The sentence has a few mistakes and so the meaning is not 100% clear.
  • My guess is this: "It turns out that it was a student who set fire to X School".
  • If the speaker had found out the identity of the arsonist only recently, he would say "turns out".
  • If he had been reporting the event in the more distant past, he would say "turned out".
  • Kind regards, Michael
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2 Answers
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The sentence has a few mistakes and so the meaning is not 100% clear. My guess is this:

"It turns out that it was a student who set fire to X School".

If the speaker had found out the identity of the arsonist only recently, he would say "turns out". If he had been reporting the event in the more distant past, he would say "turned out".

Kind regards, Michael
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park sang joonI think if A thinks readers, listeners, or listener knows what he says, he should use "it turns out," and if not, he should use "it turned out."
No. Not at all. The listener may not know what "turns out", but the speaker can still say "It turns out that".

"It turns out that" focuses on how the situation stands at the present moment.
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