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Anonymous Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Relative clauses and tense

Happy to be here. I am an English teacher in South korea. I wanna ask one sentence, which I suggested for mid term exam in the misdle school.


Condition1. All context is the past.

And, one student said that


I saw some paintings which are beautiful and meaningful.


But i think 'which were' is more appropriate because the emotion that a writer felt ( beautiful and meaningful) occured at the time of watching the paintings, and all thing happened at the past.


So i think 'which are' is wrong.


I wanna listen to your opinions. Thank you!

  

Top answer

anonymous because the emotion that a writer felt ( beautiful and meaningful) occurred at the time of seeing the paintings You are thinking too deeply. 'Were' is more common because native speakers tend to regress a dependent verb to match the tense of the main verb. However, the present tense is also common in this sort of context if the fact still obtains: presumably, the paintings are still beautiful and meaningful—at least to the speaker—now.

— Mister Micawber

  • anonymous because the emotion that a writer felt ( beautiful and meaningful) occurred at the time of seeing the paintings You are thinking too deeply.
  • 'Were' is more common because native speakers tend to regress a dependent verb to match the tense of the main verb.
  • However, the present tense is also common in this sort of context if the fact still obtains: presumably, the paintings are still beautiful and meaningful—at least to the speaker—now.
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2 Answers
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anonymous because the emotion that a writer felt ( beautiful and meaningful) occurred at the time of seeing the paintings

You are thinking too deeply. 'Were' is more common because native speakers tend to regress a dependent verb to match the tense of the main verb. However, the prese

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Are you really an English teacher?


I am an English teacher in South korea. I wanna ask one sentence, which I suggested for mid term exam in the misdle school.

anonymousC
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