past or present (passive)

Question

Hi,imagine you had your house painted.Then some one comes to your house and asks about the colors. You answer "the bedrooms are painted in blue and the rest of the house is painted in white''. You can also use the past tense, ''the bedrooms were painted..."Which one is correct?Or you come to eat dinner and you see there is nothing left. Which one is the correct form? 1-It is eaten.    2-It was eaten.

Mark Callan · Accepted Answer

"It has been eaten." is better than "It was eaten"

CalifJim · Answer

Sometimes the difference in tense between present and past does not change the meaning much, especially with the passive. You can focus on the fact that somebody painted the bedrooms (They were painted blue; a past action) or on the fact that the bedrooms are now blue (They are painted blue; a present state). You can't have one without the other, so they are closely related logically.

The same is true for hundreds of other examples you might think of, including your example with 'eaten'.

CJ

Imantaghavi · Answer

Hi Behnam,

Adding to what CJ just explicated I can say "has been eaten" would be a better choice for the latter example you mentioned, since you can see the result.

Hope it helps,

Iman

Behnam A · Answer

CalifJimSometimes the difference in tense between present and past does not change the meaning much, especially with the passive

Thank you so much.
This is exactly what i had in mind but didn't know if it was true.

Behnam A · Answer

imantaghavi I can say "has been eaten" would be a better choice for the latter example you mentioned, since you can see the result.

Yes, you're right but actually in this case the options were past, present or both.
Thanks anyway, you always help me with your great answers.

past or present (passive)

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