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Helenduong Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
The use of simple present tense in memoir?
Dear teachers,
In this paragraph:
Thank you very much for your answers.
In this paragraph:
We can see that the writer uses past tense to describe his past experience. So why the sentence “Strange how the mind works” is written in simple present tense, but not “Strange how the mind worked”?
It must have been the shuffling on the landing outside the room that did it. Strange how the mind works. All night gunfire had stuttered, and crashed, and rolled around the town, and I had slept on through everything. It had, after all, been an exhausting couple of weeks, criss-crossing El Salvador, watching, from both sides and often at dangerously close quarters, the guerrillas as they were resolutely, attempting to disrupt the national elections.
(“A correspondent’s life” by Michael Buerk)
Thank you very much for your answers.
Top answer
The writer "comes out of his story" to make a comment that is generally true for all time, whether during the time of the story or whether in our present-day world. Comments like this go in the present tense. CJ
- The writer "comes out of his story" to make a comment that is generally true for all time, whether during the time of the story or whether in our present-day world.
- Comments like this go in the present tense.
- CJ
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2 Answers
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The writer "comes out of his story" to make a comment that is generally true for all time, whether during the time of the story or whether in our present-day world. Comments like this go in the present tense.
CJ
CJ
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