Re: tense

Clive — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:34:35 GMT

Hi,

Why is it that in the situation below, 'would' has to go with 'spent' and 'will' with 'has spent"? I know 'would' is used in the sense of indicating past actions but 'would' is also used for indicating conditional intention.

He spent many hours trying to make sure everything would (why not 'will'??) go as planned.

We don't have to make changes for these though..

He spent many hours making dolls.

He spent many hours trying to improve himself.

He spent many hours making dolls while eating dinner.

Why do we have to put both verbs 'spent' and 'would' in a past event sense, which I think is what happened for the original sentence?

You need to use the past tense, 'spent', if you want to tell me that he did this in the past.

He spent many hours trying to make sure everything would go as planned. This means the event he was planning was going to happen in the past.

He spent many hours trying to make sure everything will go as planned. You can also use 'will'. But this means the event he was planning is going to happen in the future. In other words, it didn't happen yet.

Best wishes, Clive

tense

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:20:02 GMT

Hi,