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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Present Tense and common mistakes
Hello everybody,
I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense. I would appreciate some help.
First of all, none of us is an English native speaker. This discussion started about the title of a song, when she was saying the song is called "I wear my sunglasses tonight" while I was sure it is "I wear my sunglasses at night". I added that I didn't only know the song, but it "makes more sense" to say "at night" grammatically.
According to my knowledge of the English language, which could be wrong, the sentence "I wear my sunglasses" should be used:
When something happens regularly or is a permanent situation we usually use the simple present tense. I wear my sunglasses everyday, when I ride my bike, etc...
Speakers occasionally use Simple Present to talk about scheduled events in the near future. This is most commonly done when talking about public transportation, but it can be used with other scheduled events as well.
Those rules clearly indicate that if the sentence were "I wear my sunnglasses tonight", it would be grammatically wrong, since it should be "I am wearing my sunglasses tonight" for present, or I am going to/will wear my sunglasses tonight" for future.
I also gave exemples of wrong use of present tense, such as "I stay home tonight", which is simply incorrect.
She told me it was only wrong in theory, and that it was now accepted and used to nuance meanings.
And now she's coming up with movies and songs titles such as "tonight, I love you", "tonight I give in" and "tonight I celebrate my love to you", songs written by native speakers "tonight I dedicate my heart...".
And the exemple of today to make it clearer: "I love you more today than yesterday", "today I feel silly", "today I think I will stay home", "today I choose to follow you", "today I stop smoking", "today I sing the blues" (aretha franklin), "Today you die" (film 2005), "today I hate everyone", "today I learn"...
Although I strongly disagree with the fact that a wrong usage of grammar should be accepted, just because it's common.
The story is silly, but I would like your opinion on that. My flatmate (British) is saying I'm totally right and all those titles are mostly american, wrong and would never be said in a conversation.
Thank you very much to all of you.
W
I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense. I would appreciate some help.
First of all, none of us is an English native speaker. This discussion started about the title of a song, when she was saying the song is called "I wear my sunglasses tonight" while I was sure it is "I wear my sunglasses at night". I added that I didn't only know the song, but it "makes more sense" to say "at night" grammatically.
According to my knowledge of the English language, which could be wrong, the sentence "I wear my sunglasses" should be used:
When something happens regularly or is a permanent situation we usually use the simple present tense. I wear my sunglasses everyday, when I ride my bike, etc...
Speakers occasionally use Simple Present to talk about scheduled events in the near future. This is most commonly done when talking about public transportation, but it can be used with other scheduled events as well.
Those rules clearly indicate that if the sentence were "I wear my sunnglasses tonight", it would be grammatically wrong, since it should be "I am wearing my sunglasses tonight" for present, or I am going to/will wear my sunglasses tonight" for future.
I also gave exemples of wrong use of present tense, such as "I stay home tonight", which is simply incorrect.
She told me it was only wrong in theory, and that it was now accepted and used to nuance meanings.
And now she's coming up with movies and songs titles such as "tonight, I love you", "tonight I give in" and "tonight I celebrate my love to you", songs written by native speakers "tonight I dedicate my heart...".
And the exemple of today to make it clearer: "I love you more today than yesterday", "today I feel silly", "today I think I will stay home", "today I choose to follow you", "today I stop smoking", "today I sing the blues" (aretha franklin), "Today you die" (film 2005), "today I hate everyone", "today I learn"...
Although I strongly disagree with the fact that a wrong usage of grammar should be accepted, just because it's common.
The story is silly, but I would like your opinion on that. My flatmate (British) is saying I'm totally right and all those titles are mostly american, wrong and would never be said in a conversation.
Thank you very much to all of you.
W
Top answer
Hi, I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense. I would appreciate some help. First of all, none of us is an English native speaker.
- Hi, I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense.
- I would appreciate some help.
- First of all, none of us is an English native speaker.
- This discussion started about the title of a song, when she was saying the song is called " I wear my sunglasses tonight " while I was sure it is " I wear my sunglasses at night ".
- I added that I didn't only know the song, but it "makes more sense" to say " at night " grammatically.
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1 Answers
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Hi,
I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense. I would appreciate some help.
First of all, none of us is an English native speaker. This discussion started about the title of a song, when she was saying the song is called "I wear my sunglasses tonight" while I was sure it is "I wear my sunglasses at night". I added that I did
I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine about the use of the present tense. I would appreciate some help.
First of all, none of us is an English native speaker. This discussion started about the title of a song, when she was saying the song is called "I wear my sunglasses tonight" while I was sure it is "I wear my sunglasses at night". I added that I did
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