What tense to use?

Question

0When the first part of a sentence is written in the past tense, do all verbs in the remaining text have to be in the same tense, or can I use the present tense as well? And if both are correct, what then is the difference? Could you please check the following example.02br02br00Thanks 02br02br01i00One senior deputy head from school (D) attributed this lack of influence to her view that the activities of the TEU 01font00are02font00 centrally controlled by the District office. This idea was confirmed by one teacher from school (B) who claimed that the TEU only 01font00implements02font00 what the District office 01font00dictates02font00 to it. He also indicated that inspection committees 01font00make02font00 regular visits to the TEU in order to make sure that the instructions 01font00are02font00 fully implemented02i0-

Ant_222 · Accepted Answer

0 «When the first part of a sentence is written in the past tense, do all verbs in the remaining text have to be in the same tense, or can I use the present tense as well?»02br
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00 It's too general a question, so the only possible answer is: "It depends."02br
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00 I think it's OK to omit tense-shifting in your exampe as long as the statements (in case they're true) are meant to be actual not only at the moment of speech, but also at the moment the intended audience reads the text... 0-

Mister Micawber · Answer

0 .02br
00Both can be used, but not necessarily in the same sentence. Here:02br
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01i00One senior deputy head from school (D) attributed this lack of influence to her view that the activities of the TEU 01font00are02font00 01b01i00(the control remains at present)02i02b00 centrally controlled by the District office. This idea was confirmed by one teacher from school (B) who claimed that the TEU only 01font00implements02font01b00 (the TEU still implements now)02b00 what the District office 01font00dictates02font00 01b00(the District office still dictates now, at the time of writing)02b00 to it. He also indicated that inspection committees 01font00make02font00 01b00(they continue to make visits, now and in the foreseeable future)02b00 regular visits to the TEU in order to make sure that the instructions 01font00are02font01b00 (are implemented any time)02b00 fully implemented02i00.0-

Egyptian2007 · Answer

0That's very enlightening. Thanks very much.0-

Clive · Answer

0Hi guys,02br
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01font00When the first part of a sentence is written in the past tense, do all verbs in the remaining text have to be in the same tense, or can I use the present tense as well? And if both are correct, what then is the difference? 02font02br
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00Permit me to offer for your consideration a much simpler example of these two tenses in a single sentence.02br
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00Last year01b00 I lived 02b00in China but now01b00 I live 02b00in Canada.02br
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00Best wishes, Clive0-

Ant_222 · Answer

0 Religion was, is, and will be a prime force in the formation of culture 0-

Kaos · Answer

0I guess what the original poster wanted to know was that "is it valid to use two different tenses in the same context"?01blockquote

01cite10Clive12cite10Last year11b10 I lived 12b10in China, but now11b10 I live 12b10in Canada.12blockquote

10This seems intuitive because you are stating two things happening at different times and the tense shifting is important for the topic.01blockquote

01cite10Egyptian200712cite11i10He also indicated that inspection committees 11font10make12font10 regular visits to the TEU in order to make sure that the instructions 11font10are12font10 fully implemented12i12blockquote

10This sentense is a bit tricky. For non-native English speaker like me, I would have questioned how could "he" pointed out about the visits when the the activities (seems to) only taking place now. 0-

RayH · Answer

0First I will say that I don't think that a native speaker would find this unclear or grammatically incorrect. That said I will attempt to point out why I think it was written as it was and defer to the grammarians out there to supply all the gory details as to why I'm right or wrong.02br
01i00One senior deputy head from school (D) attributed 01b01i00[she did this at some point in the past]02i02b00 this lack of influence to her view that the activities of the TEU 01font00are02font00 01b00[the activities in question continue into the future]02b00 centrally controlled by the District office. This idea was confirmed by one teacher from school (B) who claimed that the TEU only 01font00implements02font00 what the District office 01font00dictates02font00 to it. He also indicated that inspection committees 01font00make02font00 regular visits to the TEU in order to make sure that the instructions 01font00are02font00 fully implemented 01b00[in these last two sentences the implementation of the dictates and the inspections are happening now and continue into the foreseeable future]02b02i0-

Egyptian2007 · Answer

0I think you are right, RayH. The reason why I used the past tense when I referred to my interviewees is that the interviews took place in the past (two years ago). I got only confused when I attempted to translate the rest of the sentence. I undertook these interviews in Arabic and the tense my interviewees used was present because they were talking about things that were happening at the time of the interviews. However, I have no reason to believe that these things are not taking place in the present time. All I wanted to know was to make sure that, apart from translation, there is nothing grammatically wrong with the paragraph.02br
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00Thanks everybody0-

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