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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Tense used in a reported speech
Hallo, I have just found the following sentence on the CNN website:
"Glee" actor Cory Monteith had said that he struggled with substance abuse since his teenage years.
I find the tense use strange, even wrong.
I think it should be rather:
He (HAD) SAID that he HAD STRUGGLED/HAD BEEN STRUGGLING with substance abuse since his teenage years.
As it is a reported speech and the time indicator "since" requires a perfect tense.
How would you put the sentence correctly, actually?
"Glee" actor Cory Monteith had said that he struggled with substance abuse since his teenage years.
I find the tense use strange, even wrong.
I think it should be rather:
He (HAD) SAID that he HAD STRUGGLED/HAD BEEN STRUGGLING with substance abuse since his teenage years.
As it is a reported speech and the time indicator "since" requires a perfect tense.
How would you put the sentence correctly, actually?
Top answer
"Glee" actor Cory Monteith had said that he had struggled with substance abuse since his teenage years. The editor missed the correction. But I find that errors slipping through is common today when a news story becomes passe after a few short minutes!
- "Glee" actor Cory Monteith had said that he had struggled with substance abuse since his teenage years.
- The editor missed the correction.
- But I find that errors slipping through is common today when a news story becomes passe after a few short minutes!
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1 Answers
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"Glee" actor Cory Monteith had said that he had struggled with substance abuse since his teenage years.
The editor missed the correction. But I find that errors slipping through is common today when a news story becomes passe after a few short minutes!
The editor missed the correction. But I find that errors slipping through is common today when a news story becomes passe after a few short minutes!
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