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Cat fold 525 Posted 7 years ago
Grammar
Tenses after as if
He looks as if he were ill.
He looked as if he were ill.
He looks as if he had been ill.
He looked as if he had been ill.
Hi, there. Could you tell me what the differences are among those sentences? Besides, I wonder if they all describe an unreal and improbable situation.
Top answer
'looks' tells how he looks now. 'looked' tells how he looked then, in the past. 'were' says his being ill was at the same time as the main verb.
- 'looks' tells how he looks now.
- 'looked' tells how he looked then, in the past.
- 'were' says his being ill was at the same time as the main verb.
- 'had been' says his being ill was prior to the time of the main verb.
- The third one is more likely to be said as He looks as if he has been ill.
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1 Answers
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'looks' tells how he looks now.
'looked' tells how he looked then, in the past.
'were' says his being ill was at the same time as the main verb.
'had been' says his being ill was prior to the time of the main verb.
The third one is more likely to be said as He looks as if he has been ill.
CJ
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