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Latest post Mon, May 25 2009 2:03 PM by Grammar Geek. 1 replies.
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Anonymous  +  746956 Mon, 25 May 09 01:54 PM
Hello English forums,

 

Can anybody help me out by telling me whether the tenses in the following sentences are alright?

I'm not a native English speaker and help will be appreciated.

1. When my dad walked into the bathroom, the children were running around and were screaming  at the top of their voices.
2. They  knocked over chairs and tables and someone had drawn funny pictures on the board.

3. The boy swore that he had paid for the candy bars.

4.  Yesterday, while Barbara was putting in her contact lenses, her cat had escaped.
5. This is my last day here. I will go back to England tomorrow. ( or is it I am going back?)

6  No, he went out.
 when exactly did he go out?

7. The doctor suggested bed rest for the patient. who had suffered from a bad cold.

8. The national team of Brasil has only won two matches so far.

9. Geologists have now predicted that the sun will collapse in the distant future.

10 . Are we not there yet? We have been walking for hours!

 

I'm quite sure about sentence 6, 9 and 10.

But for the rest, I don't know.

 

 

Grammar Geek  +  746975 Mon, 25 May 09 02:03 PM
Hello Anon,

1. When my dad walked into the bathroom, the children were running around and were screaming  at the top of their voices.

The problem with this is that is sounds like they were running and screaming in the bathroom. This doesn't seem likely. As soon as my dad walked into the bathroom, the children started running and screaming (elsewhere). You don't need to repeat the second "were" - it's understood they were running and (were) screaming without it.


2. They  knocked over chairs and tables and someone had drawn funny pictures on the board.

This could be right, but you probably want to keep the tense the same. Either "They had knocked over" and "someone had drawn" or "They knocked over " and "someone drew."

 

3. The boy swore that he had paid for the candy bars. Okay!

 

4.  Yesterday, while Barbara was putting in her contact lenses, her cat had escaped. They happened at the same time. Using past perfect puts the escape before the contact lens insertion.


5. This is my last day here. I will go back to England tomorrow. ( or is it I am going back?) Either one is okay.

 

6  No, he went out.
 When exactly did he go out? Okay!

 

7. The doctor suggested bed rest for the patient. who had suffered from a bad cold. Was suffering. You want to put the suffering at the same time as the doctor's order, which was in the past. The suffering did not come before the order.

 

8. The national team of Brasil has only won two matches so far.Okay!

 

9. Geologists have now predicted that the sun will collapse in the distant future. Could be okay. You can also say "Geologists now predict that..."

 

10 . Are we not there yet? We have been walking for hours!  Okay!

 

Let us know if you have further questions.

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006
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Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!
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