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Bfoconnell Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Mixing tenses

I have a boss who really believes in her grammatical acumen, and values consistency above all else, but I think this is slavish adherence to widely recognised but inaccurate grammatical conventions.Her current insistence is that tense should never be mixed (really never!)For example, she finds issue with the following phrases:"He led the team in every way, playing hard and drinking hard"and"Jonathan joined the bank in 1996, joining his current team in 2001".(For my information, can someone confirm that these are simple past and past continuous?)What is the consensus on the forum, and how do I tackle this problem (diplomatically)?Thanks,Brian.
  

Top answer

bfoconnell "He led the team in every way, playing hard and drinking hard"and "Jonathan joined the bank in 1996, joining his current team in 2001" These are not exactly great sentences but good enough to understand. For explanation, your sentences have no mixed tense problem. They are in simple past tense.

— Dimsumexpress

  • bfoconnell "He led the team in every way, playing hard and drinking hard"and "Jonathan joined the bank in 1996, joining his current team in 2001" These are not exactly great sentences but good enough to understand.
  • For explanation, your sentences have no mixed tense problem.
  • They are in simple past tense.
  • The green words are the main verb for the sentence.
  • Playing hard, drinking hard, and joining are called non-finite clause, or participle phrases.
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1 Answers
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bfoconnell"He led the team in every way, playing hard and drinking hard"and
"Jonathan joined the bank in 1996, joining his current team in 2001"
These are not exactly great sentences but good enough to understand. For explanation, your sentences have no mixed tense p
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