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Sidneyp Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Mixes of tenses

Hi,

I have provided an example below where my friend borrowed a dvd of me for a long time, I had it back last week and I watched it today.

"After all those years you had been borrowing this dvd, I finally have a spare moment of my favourite scenes"

The first part is written from the past up to the point of last week

and the Second part is written as it's in the present today.

I get confused now and then that when I am writing, I always get put down you can only use one tense for a whole sentence or paragragh etc. Is this true? Are use of mixed tenses allowed?

Many Thanks

Sidneyp
  

Top answer

Hi, You can certainly have a mix of tenses provided the context warrants. You have some exapmples below: She wrote she will meet me next week. They spoke more clearly than we do now.

— Vsuresh

  • Hi, You can certainly have a mix of tenses provided the context warrants.
  • You have some exapmples below: She wrote she will meet me next week.
  • They spoke more clearly than we do now.
  • She said she will take care of me after my retirement.
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7 Answers
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Hi,

You can certainly have a mix of tenses provided the context warrants. You have some exapmples below:

She wrote she will meet me next week.

They spoke more clearly than we do now.

She said she will take care of me after my retirement.
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You can certainly have mixed tenses in a sentence.

I lived there for years, so I know what it's like.

I've been running seriously for about two years, and I'm ready for my first marathon.

He worked hard for a long time and he will enjoy a nice retirement.

There is a problem with your choice of "borrowing" as your verb, though. You borrow something only once, in
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Hi

Thanks for your reply.

So is my example grammatically correct using the Past Pefect Continuous and then the Present tense?

Thanks
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I can't make past perfect continuous match with present. I can make present perfect continuous match present.

Past perfect continuous in the first part can match with simple past in the second part.

I have been working hard on this project for months, so I'm happy that today I hand it in.

I had been working hard on that project for months, and was happy the day I complet
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Hi Grammar Geek

I do think the way you do, but I would like to know whether the sentence given below, in which I have used them together, sounds all right.

She had not been doing well in studies from the time her mother returned from the US to the time she left again, but today she is doing much better.
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Okay, I am now concluding that certain tenses can only go together in a sentence.

I have seen Past perfect continuous with Past Perfect also. Is that okay to combine?

if I use my example,

"After all those years you had been borrowing my dvd, I finally had a spare moment of my favourite scences"

Would that be okay?
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Setting aside the problem with "you had been borrowing" (described above), you have simple past: I had a moment.

There is no past perfect here.
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