... would not be polite of you to ask him questions ... when he is ...
(ex) It wouldn't be polite of you to ask him questions about a postponed project when he is still sick at home.
I would like to ask two questions about this sentence.
(1) "wouldn't" is in the past tense and "is" is in the present tense. Is it OK to have two different tenses in the same sentence?
(2) Some of my friends think "when" is the right conjunction, but others think it's wrong. It sounds OK to my non-native English ear. Do you think "when" works here?
Thank you very much.
Top answer
ansonguy (1) "wouldn't" is in the past tense and "is" is in the present tense. Is it OK to have two different tenses in the same sentence? It's OK.
- ansonguy (1) "wouldn't" is in the past tense and "is" is in the present tense.
- Is it OK to have two different tenses in the same sentence?
- It's OK.
- The "wouldn't" is a hypothetical present, so it works well with 'is' in that subordinate clause of time.
- ansonguy (2) Some of my friends think "when" is the right conjunction, but others think it's wrong.
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ansonguy(1) "wouldn't" is in the past tense and "is" is in the present tense. Is it OK to have two different tenses in the same sentence?
It's OK. The "wouldn't" is a hypothetical present, so it works well with 'is' in that subordinate clause of time.
ansonguy(2) Some of my friends think "when" is the right conjunction, but othe
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