Tenses

Question

1. Oh! I forgot to call her. I am calling her now/am going to call her now.

2. We had been/were in a very difficult position. We didn't know what to do.

3. The hotel wasn't very expensive. It didn't /wouldn't cost very much to stay there.

4. Sue was sitting on the ground. She was out of breath. She had run/was running.

5. Her English will be excellent by the time she visits the U.S. because she has studied/has been studying for five years.

6. His mother was/has been on holiday since last Sunday.

Please choose me the right tenses from the above sentences. Thanks a lot.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

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CalifJim · Answer

Ye Thu1. Oh! I forgot to call her. I am going to call her now.

Ye Thu2. We were in a very difficult position. We didn't know what to do.

Most likely being in a difficult position and not knowing what to do were concurrent situations. It's not likely that your were in a difficult position for some time before you realized that you didn't know what to do.

Ye Thu3. The hotel wasn't very expensive. It didn't /wouldn't cost very much to stay there.

If you already stayed at the hotel, you'd say "didn't". If you were considering staying there in the near future after having examined the prices, you might say "wouldn't". If this is a test question, I'd advise "didn't" because that scenario is more likely.

Ye Thu4. Sue was sitting on the ground. She was out of breath. She had been running.

The continuous aspect works better with dynamic verbs in this context.

The running had been going on up to the time she sat on the ground out of breath.

Ye Thu5. Her English will be excellent by the time she visits the U.S. because she has been studying for five years.

Again, the continuous works better. The studying was going on and continued until the time this statement was made.

Ye Thu6. His mother has been on holiday since last Sunday.

The key word is 'since'. It says "from last Sunday until now", a period of time which extends to the present moment, which is the mark of the present perfect tense. If you have to guess a tense in a sentence that has a since-phrase of time, it's best to guess the present perfect (simple or continuous).

CJ

Tenses

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