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Stenka25 Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The tense after 'it will not be long before'
The tense after 'it will not be long before'
The sentences below comes from the checkout of Google Books.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22It+will+not+be+long+before+he%22#q=%22It+will+not+be+long+before+he%22&safe=off&tbm=bks&start=20
? "The prince of Wales has been ill these three or four days; and if he has been so bad as people say, I believe it will not be long before he is an angel in heaven."
? When you meet a Jehovah's Witness it will not be long before he will speak of Armageddon.
As we can see the examples above the before clause after 'it will not be long before' can have either present tense or future tense.
What I want to ask is whether there is a logic for seemingly random alternate use of tenses with BEFORE clause or is it just random?
I have another check-up results. Google book check-up showed just 2 cases with future tense and 247 with pretense tense.
? It will not be long before we meet again. (247)
? It will not be long before we will meet again. (2)
I fully admit this question is significantly finicky.
But since one of the biggest differences between Korean and English is tense, I can not help bringing up this sort of questions.
Regards.
The sentences below comes from the checkout of Google Books.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22It+will+not+be+long+before+he%22#q=%22It+will+not+be+long+before+he%22&safe=off&tbm=bks&start=20
? "The prince of Wales has been ill these three or four days; and if he has been so bad as people say, I believe it will not be long before he is an angel in heaven."
? When you meet a Jehovah's Witness it will not be long before he will speak of Armageddon.
As we can see the examples above the before clause after 'it will not be long before' can have either present tense or future tense.
What I want to ask is whether there is a logic for seemingly random alternate use of tenses with BEFORE clause or is it just random?
I have another check-up results. Google book check-up showed just 2 cases with future tense and 247 with pretense tense.
? It will not be long before we meet again. (247)
? It will not be long before we will meet again. (2)
I fully admit this question is significantly finicky.
But since one of the biggest differences between Korean and English is tense, I can not help bringing up this sort of questions.
Regards.
Top answer
Stenka25 What I want to ask is whether there is a logic for seemingly random alternate use of tenses with BEFORE clause or is it just random? When the action happens in the future, "before" normally takes the simple present tense rather than the future tense. org/en/english-grammar/verbs/verbs-time-clauses-and-if-clauses I would not use future tense in your first example, and your own research shows that it is almost unused in the second.
- Stenka25 What I want to ask is whether there is a logic for seemingly random alternate use of tenses with BEFORE clause or is it just random?
- When the action happens in the future, "before" normally takes the simple present tense rather than the future tense.
- org/en/english-grammar/verbs/verbs-time-clauses-and-if-clauses I would not use future tense in your first example, and your own research shows that it is almost unused in the second.
- "will" can be used with "before" in certain cases, such as when volition is required to be emphasised.
- g.
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4 Answers
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Stenka25What I want to ask is whether there is a logic for seemingly random alternate use of tenses with BEFORE clause or is it just random?When the action happens in the future, "before" normally takes the simple present tense rather than the future tense. In this sense it is similar to various other time expressions (and conditional expressions); for exampl
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Thanks a lot as always, GPY.
Thanks a lot for the link you presented which addresses almost every questions I got regarding time and conditional expressions.
Let me check another textbook example sentence with the future tense in BEFORE clause.
? It will not be long before he will be elected the mayor of the city.
I believe you think it would be recomm
Thanks a lot for the link you presented which addresses almost every questions I got regarding time and conditional expressions.
Let me check another textbook example sentence with the future tense in BEFORE clause.
? It will not be long before he will be elected the mayor of the city.
I believe you think it would be recomm
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Stenka25? It will not be long before he will be elected the mayor of the city.I believe you think it would be recommended that 'will be' of the sentence be exchanged with 'is'.Correct. Normally one would say:
It will not be long before he is elected mayor of the city.
I would also write "elected mayor" rather than "elected the
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Thanks a lot, GPY.
Thanks a double lot for your pointing the actual error in the use of "THE" in the sentence.
I didn't think 'is elected the mayor of' makes native speakers grimace for the sloppy use of the definite article.
You comment lead me to check out Google Books.
Surprise!
With the search words, 'is elected the mayor of', it showed none.
But with 'is elected mayor
Thanks a double lot for your pointing the actual error in the use of "THE" in the sentence.
I didn't think 'is elected the mayor of' makes native speakers grimace for the sloppy use of the definite article.
You comment lead me to check out Google Books.
Surprise!
With the search words, 'is elected the mayor of', it showed none.
But with 'is elected mayor
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