was to come / did come / came

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Janissary

#188737 Wed, 25 Jan 06 09:26 PM

gertrude was to come with us.

why the writer uses it in this way(it is in the book which i am reading now) . what is the difference "

gertrude was to come with us.

"gerturude came with us"

Janissary

Joined on Mon, Jan 23 2006

Istanbul

Full Member (494)

speak english or die

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nona the brit

#188750 Wed, 25 Jan 06 10:18 PM

Gertrude came with us means that it has already happened. Gertrude went somewhere with them.

Gertrude 'was to' come with us means that it has been arranged that Gertrude would go somewhere with them in the future. The emphasis though, is on the fact that they are taking Gertrude, and it suggests they are making arrangements/looking after her, rather than Gertrude just happening to be in their party.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,430)

The name says it all.

Janissary

#188784 Wed, 25 Jan 06 11:36 PM

does it mean she didnt come.i mean is it precise. if it is so can we use she was going to come with us

Janissary

CalifJim

#188875 Thu, 26 Jan 06 07:29 AM

If Gertrude was to come, it doesn't mean she came and it doesn't mean she didn't come. It means only that it had been arranged previously that she would come. We don't know what happened next until we read the rest of the story. Maybe she was to come, but she got sick at the last minute and did not come. Maybe she was to come, so everybody waited longer until she finally came, precisely because they knew she was to come.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,512)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Janissary

#188911 Thu, 26 Jan 06 10:11 AM

hmm. so this is not the same thing as was/were going to do" ok understand thnx Smile [:)]

Janissary

CalifJim

#189236 Fri, 27 Jan 06 03:40 AM

That's right. It is similar, but not exactly the same as "was/were going to".

Often you can add the word "expected", "supposed", or "scheduled" like this:

Gertrude was to come.
= Gertrude was expected to come.
= Gertrude was supposed to come.
= Gertrude was scheduled to come.

(where the = indicates approximate equality, not exact equality.)

CJ