why is it find & not found??

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Ohayo

#129855 Tue, 23 Aug 05 09:47 AM

i was trying out an online tutorial on verb tenses. however the following sentences make me feel puzzle.

1) After i find the wallet, i immediately go to the police & turn it in

Q) why is it 'find' not 'found'??

2) i call u last night but you are not there. Where were you?

Q) why not called & were??

tks alot!

Ohayo

Joined on Tue, Aug 23 2005

New Member (20)

Tenses, Verbs

pieanne

#129859 Tue, 23 Aug 05 09:55 AM

Hello, Ohayo, welcome to the Forums!

1) The sentence such as it is makes me think of someone repeating instructions. A:"Now, remember, what do you do after you find the wallet? " - B: "After I find the wallet, etc etc". Yet, if you found a wallet, let's say yesterday afternoon, and if you are relating what you did with it, then the whole sentence should be in the simple past: "After I found the wallet, I immediately went to the police and turned it in".

2) As the moment of the action is clearly stated - yesterday night - the whole sentence should be in the simple past: "I called you last night, but you were not there. Where were you?"

This is only my opinion...

pieanne

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005

South of France ...But I'm Belgian!

Veteran Member (7,512)

I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

Simple past

Mister Micawber

#129858 Tue, 23 Aug 05 09:55 AM

Ohayo gozaimasu, Ohayo-- and welcome to English Forums.

Your sentences are out of context (and I hope they had some), but to me they seem like narrative, for which the immediacy can be enhanced by telling the story in present tense:

Then Frodo leaves Hobbiton with Sam and they cut across the farmers' fields; they plan to take the Bucklebury ferry.

Your #2 sounds strange however, because it includes the adverb phrase last night-- this really screams for the past tense-- and then the next sentence uses were!

Can you give us a URL link to that online tutorial-- I would like to investigate its credentials.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,347)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Adverbs, Past tenses, Present tenses, Tenses, Verbs

Ohayo

#129878 Tue, 23 Aug 05 10:21 AM

hmm am i allowed to post the url here??

well here's the url. pls help me verify if this website teaches correct tenses as i do not want to learn the wrong stuffs!

[link]

oh by the way, those sentences that i've posted earlier on is their correct answer. u will have a better idea after you have visited the webby.

Ohayo

Tenses

Mister Micawber

#129882 Tue, 23 Aug 05 10:37 AM

As the title of the tutorial says, Ohayo, all the answers should be in simple past or past continuous:

2. After I (find) the wallet full of money, I (go, immediately) to the police and (turn) it in.

6. A: I (call) you last night after dinner, but you (be, not) there. Where were you?
B: I (work) out at the fitness center.

The answers should be: (2) found - immediately went - turned; (6) called - were not - was working.

You are supposed to create the correct form of the verb given in parentheses. If the answer sheet says these are wrong, then there is some problem with their software.

Mister Micawber

Simple past, Verbs

Ohayo

#129903 Tue, 23 Aug 05 11:27 AM

very sorry for not reading carefully!

Ohayo