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Guzhao67 Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
past tense and present tense when referring to great works
Hi there: I need your help. when citing some great person's famous remarks or ideas, past tense and present tense are both acceptable. for example; “Any meddling or changing over from one class to another’, says Plato, ‘is a great crime against the city and may rightly be denounced as the basest wickedness.”And we can replace "says" with "said". Right? But is there any difference between the tenses used in such citations? are we free to choose the verb tense or not?
thank you very much
thank you very much
Top answer
Hello Guzhao, It makes a difference. Says Plato is the historic present - everyone knows that Plato died years ago, but we sometimes use the present tense of dramatize things which happened in the past. Said Plato is more usual, less dramatic, and preferable in most circumstances, I think.
- Hello Guzhao, It makes a difference.
- Says Plato is the historic present - everyone knows that Plato died years ago, but we sometimes use the present tense of dramatize things which happened in the past.
- Said Plato is more usual, less dramatic, and preferable in most circumstances, I think.
- This raises the question whether or not you should rather say, or write, wrote Plato.
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1 Answers
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Hello Guzhao,
It makes a difference. Says Plato is the historic present - everyone knows that Plato died years ago, but we sometimes use the present tense of dramatize things which happened in the past.
Said Plato is more usual, less dramatic, and preferable in most circumstances, I think.
This raises the question whether or not you should rather say, or write, wrote P
It makes a difference. Says Plato is the historic present - everyone knows that Plato died years ago, but we sometimes use the present tense of dramatize things which happened in the past.
Said Plato is more usual, less dramatic, and preferable in most circumstances, I think.
This raises the question whether or not you should rather say, or write, wrote P
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