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Kenny1999 Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Present or Past tense ?

If I want to talk about someone , but he/she has disappeared from my life totally , but he/she is still alive. Which tenses should I use?

For example, I am talking about a girl I love, but she has kept herself away from me totally, but I still love her, and she is still alive now, I am talking about her now. Which one is correct

A. She was so pretty and I loved her so much, but she has disappeared from my life totally and suddenly, without telling me why.

B. She is so pretty and I love her so much, but she has disappeared from my life totally and suddenly, without telling me why

She is still pretty and I still love her now, but she has NO connection with me now, which tenses should I use in that case?
  

Top answer

Emotions tend to cloud how a person addresses feelings that seem not to cease over time. One might know that the person is still alive, but not have seen her. Your recollection is of how she looked then and how you felt then.

— Wilpeter

  • Emotions tend to cloud how a person addresses feelings that seem not to cease over time.
  • One might know that the person is still alive, but not have seen her.
  • Your recollection is of how she looked then and how you felt then.
  • For all you know, she may now have suffered changes to her appearance and personality, so that you would no longer feel the same way.
  • It is better to speak in the past tense, in my opinion.
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6 Answers
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Emotions tend to cloud how a person addresses feelings that seem not to cease over time. One might know that the person is still alive, but not have seen her. Your recollection is of how she looked then and how you felt then. For all you know, she may now have suffered changes to her appearance and personality, so that you would no longer feel the same way. It is better to speak in the past te
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No No No... She is still pretty now, She is still alive now. But I haven't seen her for some time. And the context has nothing about the change in her appearance.

She is or She was ??
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I'm going to pass on this one. Grammar wasn't written to justify love. I loved a girl in high school, but when I got around to dating her, she was already married. That did not stop my feelings for her, but even though I was later married for over 40 years and am now a widower, I still feel an emotion for her that might be called love. I haven't seen her in 44 years.
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kenny1999A. She was so pretty and I loved her so much, but she has disappeared from my life totally and suddenly, without telling me why.
You have recovered from your obsession with the young lady. You are nostalgic about it, but totally ready for someone else to come into your life and be your love interest.
kenny1999B. She is so pre
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Simply put, can I say...

if I still love her NOW, I use " LOVE"
if I do not love her NOW, I use "LOVED"

How about I am describing a girl I saw yesterday in the street whom I don't know , and I don;t have any connection with her now and probably in the future?

Yesterday I saw a girl who IS so pretty??
Yesterday I saw a girl who WAS so pretty??

which one s
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kenny1999which one sounds right? It's only yesterday, she should be still pretty today, but she has no connection in my life
Use "was." Connection to your life is irrelevant.

You don't know that she is pretty now. Anything can happen.
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