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Navy piano 982 Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Sequence of tenses in "S was the only one to V"

Hello, I was writing an e-mail to a professor and found myself unsure about this construction. When i say it in the present:

  • He is the one to read my essay.

then, if I want to move it to the past, do I conform to the sequence of tenses? I. e.

  • He was the one to have read my essay.

It seems grammatically right to me, as in "He says he likes me." -> "He said he liked me." But it somehow sounds strange, even more so when the "He was the one to read my essay." is the construction I would usually find on the Internet. I would prefer to see a corresponding entry in a grammar (I couldn't find one) rather than an experienced opinion, but I'm also interested in the way an actual native speaker would use this construction. Thank you very much!
PS: When will you finally establish an academy, so that we, non native speakers, have a source of information to rely on?
PPS: Feel free to correct any of my mistakes, I'm not feeling it today Emotion: big smile

  

Top answer

"

  • "
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2 Answers
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... aaand of course I meant to write "He is the ONLY one to read my essay." and "He was the ONLY one to have read my essay."

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1. He is the only one to read my essay.
2. He is the only one to have read my essay.
3. He was the only one to read my essay.
4. He was the only one to have read my essay.

If he has completed reading it, use (2) instead of (1). In fact, (1) seems kind of unusual to me.

(3) and (4) are both possible. (4) implies that he had finished it at the

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