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Believer Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
other questions on tenses
Hi, I would appreciate if you could help me with these.
1. A group of adults has finished watching a movie or a play and was commenting on a particular scene of the movie or play afterward. An actual partial scene was set like this:
The father comes in to the kitchen, where all kids were sitting. The father was leaving for a work assignment and has gathered all of his children around a table in the kitchen to inform them of his temporary departure and to give some instructions. He said, "OK, kids, you know I just got a new assignment and have to leave at 5 p.m. I hope you will all behave and do good in your schools."
Now, adults are commenting on the scene and one adult in that group started to make some references to the scene to make his points. Is the underlined tense correct? Should all verbs in the same tenses or can the first verb be different?
(In that scene) He (the father) comes (can it be came?) into the kitchen and talked to his kids about his departure and to give some instructions. I think in that scene the father chose to talk in the kitchen, rather than in the livingroom because the table in the kitchen was bigger and he wanted to hold a group talk where all of his six kids are there.
2. Compare these two and please tell me how they are different.
I thought the apples were great in taste.
I thought he does love me.
1. A group of adults has finished watching a movie or a play and was commenting on a particular scene of the movie or play afterward. An actual partial scene was set like this:
The father comes in to the kitchen, where all kids were sitting. The father was leaving for a work assignment and has gathered all of his children around a table in the kitchen to inform them of his temporary departure and to give some instructions. He said, "OK, kids, you know I just got a new assignment and have to leave at 5 p.m. I hope you will all behave and do good in your schools."
Now, adults are commenting on the scene and one adult in that group started to make some references to the scene to make his points. Is the underlined tense correct? Should all verbs in the same tenses or can the first verb be different?
(In that scene) He (the father) comes (can it be came?) into the kitchen and talked to his kids about his departure and to give some instructions. I think in that scene the father chose to talk in the kitchen, rather than in the livingroom because the table in the kitchen was bigger and he wanted to hold a group talk where all of his six kids are there.
2. Compare these two and please tell me how they are different.
I thought the apples were great in taste.
I thought he does love me.
Top answer
where his kids WERE sitting" has no sense. I thought the apples were great in taste - actually there's nothng wrong with it. Were because apples in the plural and it's in the past because of the first verb THOUGHT, it's merely a consequence of tenses.
- where his kids WERE sitting" has no sense.
- I thought the apples were great in taste - actually there's nothng wrong with it.
- Were because apples in the plural and it's in the past because of the first verb THOUGHT, it's merely a consequence of tenses.
- I thought he does love me - if you are embarassed by DOES, then here it's emphatic, meaning that he really loves me.
- It's not auxaliary verb here that we usually use in questions or negative sentences.
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3 Answers
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If you are retelling something in the past so all the verbs should be in the pas, otherwise such sentences like "...the father comes...where his kids WERE sitting" has no sense.
I thought the apples were great in taste - actually there's nothng wrong with it. Were because apples in the plural and it's in the past because of the first verb THOUGHT, it's merely a consequence of tenses.
I thought the apples were great in taste - actually there's nothng wrong with it. Were because apples in the plural and it's in the past because of the first verb THOUGHT, it's merely a consequence of tenses.
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1. The speaker changed point-of-view during his retelling of the story. This is not unusual in casual conversation. Giving a plot synopsis of a movie or book in the present tense is not uncommon. These are fictitious events that are captured for reviewing or rereading at any time so they still "exist" in the present.
2. Not sure what you want here. How are they different? On
2. Not sure what you want here. How are they different? On
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You don't necessarily need to talk about the past event in past tense. You can use present as well in the narration of events set in the past, it's called historical present. However, if you start a sentence in the past tense, it is usual to continue with the past tense because of the sequence of tenses (I agree with this example with "did/does"). As for the "do" verb, it serves to emphasize unle
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