Tenses 27/01

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Hela

#189594 Fri, 27 Jan 06 06:37 PM

Dear teachers,

1) Would you say “I first experienced terror when I was 10.”

“I had first experienced terror when I was 10.” ?

We would say “I had known great poverty when I was 10.”

And not

“I knew great poverty when I was 10.” Right? But why?

2) Which versions would you accept here, please?

Treasure Island is one of the best known and most loved children’s adventure stories. It was first published in 1883 but 1 REMAINS / HAS REMAINED [are both tenses correct ?] popular 2 TO / TILL / UNTIL [are all these prepositions possible ?] this day. People 3 USED TO THINK / THOUGHT that the story was solely the work of Stevenson’s imagination, but recent research has uncovered the true origin of this thrilling tale 4 OF / ABOUT / ABOUT A [which ones are acceptable ?] hidden treasure and bloodthirsty pirates.

Many thanks,

Hela

Hela

Joined on Mon, Nov 15 2004

Tunisia

Regular Member (831)

Prepositions, Tenses

YoHf

#189708 Fri, 27 Jan 06 10:03 PM

#1 I'd use Past Simple in both cases.

Hope this helps.

Have a go on #2 and post here your version of it.

Music [8]

YoHf

Joined on Wed, Oct 26 2005

Florence, Italy

Senior Member (3,345)

To be yourself is all that you can do. Music [8]

Tenses, Past Simple

Hela

#189759 Sat, 28 Jan 06 12:50 AM

Dear teachers,

If I say : "As / While a student / When he was a student he had known great poverty."

Is the sentence complete or should I add something else?

Hela

Tenses

Clive

#189764 Sat, 28 Jan 06 01:06 AM

Hi Hela,

The use of the past perfect suggests that the statement you are making relates to some other, later event in the past. As long as your context explains that later event to me, your sentence is OK.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (22,572)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Tenses, Past Perfect

Hela

#189776 Sat, 28 Jan 06 01:49 AM

Hi Clive, would you please answer my second point in my initial post?

Hela

Tenses

CalifJim

#189798 Sat, 28 Jan 06 03:19 AM

Treasure Island is one of the best known and most loved children’s adventure stories. It was first published in 1883 but 1 REMAINS / HAS REMAINED [are both tenses correct ?] popular 2 TO / TILL / UNTIL [are all these prepositions possible ?] this day. People 3 USED TO THINK / THOUGHT that the story was solely the work of Stevenson’s imagination, but recent research has uncovered the true origin of this thrilling tale 4 OF / ABOUT / ABOUT A [which ones are acceptable ?] hidden treasure and bloodthirsty pirates.

While other choices are also acceptable to a degree, I think the ones in bold are the only ones that are completely convincing as idiomatic English.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,794)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Prepositions, Tenses

Hela

#189844 Sat, 28 Jan 06 08:04 AM

So would you think it acceptable (but not idiomatic) if I said "It was first published in 1883 but REMAINS popular TILL / UNTIL this day." ?

Hela

Tenses

milky

#189876 Sat, 28 Jan 06 10:45 AM

Hela wrote:
So would you think it acceptable (but not idiomatic) if I said "It was first published in 1883 but REMAINS popular TILL / UNTIL this day." ?

Both verb forms are correct and idiomatic, but the "remains" form is not correct with the chosen adverbial.

"Has remained" looks at the time from a "then" to an "until now": "remains" looks only at the "now". So, the use of an adverb phrase "till/until now" really should be used with the "has remained" form.

Look what happens if we write the "full" grammatical form:

it has remained popular from that time until this one.

*it remains popular from that time until this one.

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

Verbs, Tenses, Adverbs

Hela

#189903 Sat, 28 Jan 06 12:30 PM

Ok then, but can I say : "It was first published in 1883 but HAS REMAINED popular TILL / UNTIL this day." ? or do I HAVE TO say "has remained TO this day" ?

Hela

Tenses

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