tenses

Question

0I've been married for 16 months and separated for 10 of those months. The reason for the separation is because my husband thinks my kids, from my previous marriage, 13 and 10, will never learn to behave. I had been a single mother for 7 years and worked 2-3 jobs before I met my husband. So, I admit my kids are lacking manners. I believe the problem stemmed from him not communicating with the kids. He completely ignored them and the only time he spoke to them was when he was correcting them. Of course the kids resent him.02br02br00Could you please check the tenses. I remember clearly my grammar teacher told us to stick to one tense as much as possible but I find it difficult. Maybe I'm still poor at tenses. Please help. 02br02br00Thanks in advance!0-

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

0This is hard one because it moves around from what IS the case to what happened in the past. If she has been seperated for 10 months, we can assume the husband's interaction wtih the kids is now over. But perhaps they are still hoping to work it out. It could go two ways:02br
02br
00I've been married for 16 months and separated for 10 of those months. The reason for the separation is because my husband 01b00thinks 02b00my kids, from my previous marriage, 13 and 10, will never learn to behave. I had been a single mother for 7 years and worked 2-3 jobs before I met my husband. So, I admit my kids 01b00are 02b00lacking manners. I believe the problem 01b00stems02b00 from him not communicating with the kids. He completely 01b00ignores02b00 them and the only time he 01b00speaks02b00 to them 01b00is02b00 when he 01b00is02b00 correcting them. Of course the kids 01b00resent 02b00him. 01font00This keeps the issues in the present.02font02br
02br
00I've been married for 16 months and separated for 10 of those months. The reason for the separation is because my husband 01b00thought02b00 my kids, from my previous marriage, 13 and 10, will never learn to behave. I had been a single mother for 7 years and worked 2-3 jobs before I met my husband. So, I admit my kids are lacking manners. I believe the problem 01b00stemmed 02b00from him not communicating with the kids. He completely 01b00ignored 02b00them and the only time he 01b00spoke 02b00to them was when he 01b00was 02b00correcting them. Of course the kids 01b00resented02b00 him. 01font00This says is all in the past02font02br
02br
00In fact, it's probably a mixture of both - they are still trying to solve the problem so some elements are past and some are present.Maybe he still thinks, and they still resent, but his communication with them is past.02br
02br
00(PS - Don't use "the reason... is because.")0-

New2grammar · Answer

1i00In fact, it's probably a mixture of both - they are still trying to solve the problem so some elements are past and some are present.Maybe he still thinks, and they still resent, but his communication with them is past.02i02br
02br
00GG, thanks for the reply. I like this comment of yours because that's what I think too. For example, the feeling 'resent' may still persist even though the communication is past. So I believe the past tense version probably can use the present tense 'resent' to emphasize their continuing feelings toward their step father. Learners are advised to stick to one tense and I probably understand why- It's easier to follow and sounds more formal. However, native speakers don't speak in one tense and maybe that's the reason you sound pretentious or too formal in a casual conversation if you speak in that manner. Of course this is the least I should worry about as I still have other major grammatical problems to fix.02br
02br
00Thanks for the reply, GG. It helps me understand grammar better.0-

BarbaraPA · Answer

1blockquote

01cite10New2grammar12cite12br
10Of course this is the least I should worry about as I still have other major grammatical problems to fix.12br
12br
12blockquote

10Not from where I'm looking!0-

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