Tense

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victorycountry

#85553 Fri, 01 Apr 05 01:58 AM

Hi,

In the following sentence, the tense of the "become" after "before", should it be in past tense?

"Francis Nadel was a beauty content winner before she became president of the company"

Event 1: Francis Nadel was a beauty content winner
Event 2: she became president of the company

Event 1 had happened before Event 2, but I am not sure whether Event 2 can be in past tense even if it has happened.

Could someone help me understand this, please.

Thanks in advance.

victorycountry

Joined on Sat, Oct 16 2004

Full Member (296)

CalifJim

#85573 Fri, 01 Apr 05 04:09 AM

The statement is perfect as is. Both situations happened in the past, so both are expressed with the past tense. She was a beauty contest winner. (This isn't an event, by the way.) Then she became president of the company. I'm not sure how else you would want to say it.

Cheryl went to the dress shop before she bought groceries.
We decided on the color before we bought the paint.
We were penniless before we won the lottery.
The earthquake occurred before the tsunami rose up.
David said goodbye before he left.

In all of these, you can substitute ", and then" for "before".
There are literally hundreds of thousands of sentences which follow the same pattern.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,794)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche