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Vcolts Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

tense consistency

Ex 1. It was interesting to see that the school has a long history.

Ex 2. It was amazing to see that the school has found a way to teach math that actually makes it fun for the kids.

Should Ex 1 be the school "had" in order to keep things consistently in the verb form?

Should Ex 2 be "school found", not "has found"?

Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Assuming "It was interesting/amazing to see" refers to the reasonably recent past, and assuming the school is still in existence and is still teaching math in a fun way, both sentences are correct as they stand.

— GPY

  • Assuming "It was interesting/amazing to see" refers to the reasonably recent past, and assuming the school is still in existence and is still teaching math in a fun way, both sentences are correct as they stand.
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12 Answers
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Assuming "It was interesting/amazing to see" refers to the reasonably recent past, and assuming the school is still in existence and is still teaching math in a fun way, both sentences are correct as they stand.
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vcoltsShould Ex 1 be the school "had" in order to keep things consistently in the verb form?
It's not necessary.
vcoltsShould Ex 2 be "school found", not "has found"?
No. 'Had found' and 'has found' are both fine.
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Don't we learn to keep the tenses the same? (ex. past & past)

Why does it not apply in these cases in terms of grammar?
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vcoltsDon't we learn to keep the tenses the same? (ex. past & past)
Only if it's necessary in the context.
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Erm, if I look up verb tense consistency, there are very few exceptions and these sentences don't seem to be included.

I would like to get the grammatical understanding of this.
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vcoltsDon't we learn to keep the tenses the same? (ex. past & past)Why does it not apply in these cases in terms of grammar?
If you are describing something that you heard/saw/etc. in the reasonably recent past, and that something is still the prevailing state (or is assumed to be), then you can use present (or present perfect) tenses to describe it. For examp
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That helps, GPY.

But what do we call it? I don't see such a thing on the list of exceptions. Could you refer me to a website or how I would find that in the grammar book? Not that I don't trust you. I get what you say.

I just wanna know where i can find it so I can refer to it later on.
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vcolts I don't see such a thing on the list of exceptions
They are not exceptions to anything.

GPY briefly explained the system as it is. If you have found a book that says we must always use the same tenses in a sentence, throw it away. it's wrong.
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I never said that I don't agree with it. I wanted to know it as a grammatical term so i can refer to it later.

I am aware that you are against filing everything into grammatical terms, but I wanna know it if there is. So when I forget, I can go back to it.
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vcoltsBut what do we call it?
Sorry, I'm afraid I don't know any specific name for this pattern of use.
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