ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: tense dilemma

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:31:35 GMT

Can someone explain these to me these please.

Can you tell me how this works?

1)It was hard. It was during a tough time I was dropped (dropped -- better?) out of college due to the pressure. I may have been too young. 1) We had moved our house. It was difficult. 2) I had married by then, and I was pregnant. I married a guy I knew for some time. He was funny. He worked for two years and changed the job.

By the time, no. 2 came about, I lost trek. I think I went back one with no. 1's past perfect, then stayed there with no. 2 with its past perfect and the words 'by then'. Then where did I come out with the sentences after no. 2? The same past like before no. 1 and 2 or doesn't matter? past is past, a story goes on??

2)He remarked that it must have seemed as if her promise would fail, or that her words came from a need, not from her heart.
Does this 'would fail' contain a sense of past conditional?

I think Mr. M said that 'would fail' is no.2 conditional; then again, I heard someone else say in this forum that a person should not use 'would' in the if-clause (I would consider 'if' and 'as if' to be synonomous). Did Mr. M say that 'would fail' in the if-clause is in the present and the whole sentence is no. 2 conditional? I thought a no. 2 conditional had a past tense in the if-clause?

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Re: tense dilemma

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:02:10 GMT

Thank you again.

Can you tell me how this works?

1)It was hard. It was during a tough time I was dropped (dropped -- better?) out of college due to the pressure. I may have been too young. 1) We had moved our house. It was difficult. 2) I had married by then, and I was pregnant. I married a guy I knew for some time. He was funny. He worked for two years and changed the job.

No. 1 only tells me that their moving of the house occured before the main time frame.

No. 2 is what baffles me: it seems to put the event of her marrying to the same time period as moving of the house. Then what? All back to a normal period? By then, I don't know if I am in the prior(??) main time frame or a new main time frame is established.
Could it be said? that it doesn't matter which main time frame it falls back in-- time differentiation needs not be made. (after all, past is past and pp is used to turn back the clock for that part only -- makes sense?)

2)He remarked that it must have seemed as if her promise would fail, or that her words came from a need, not from her heart.
Does this 'would fail' contain a sense of past conditional?

I think you said that 'would fail' is no.2 conditional; then again, I heard someone said in this forum that a person should not use 'would' in the if-clause (I would consider 'if' and 'as if' to be synonomous). Did say that 'would fail' in the if-clause is in the present and the whole sentence is no. 2 conditional? I thought a no. 2 conditional had a past tense in the if-clasuse?

Re: tense dilemma

Mister Micawber — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:20:38 GMT

.
I'm sorry, but your conglomeration of poorly structured example sentences and confused numbers makes it unclear to me what you are asking. Nor are your following questions particularly lucid. I can tell you that 'would fail' is conditional 2, which is a present form.

Perhaps if you revised and simplified your post, I could address your other concerns.

tense dilemma

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:56:18 GMT

Hi,
Can you tell me how this works?

1)It was hard. It was during a tough time I was dropped out of college due to the pressure. I may have been too young. 1) We had moved our house. It was difficult. 2) I had married by then, and I was pregnant. I married a guy I knew for some time. He was funny. He worked for two years and changed the job.

No. 1 only tells me that their moving of the house occured before the main time frame (main-time frame with ahyphen??).
No. 2 is what baffles me: it seems to put the event of her marrying to the same time period as moving of the house. Then what? All back to a normal period? By then, I don't know if I am in the prior(??) main time frame (main-time frame with a hyphen??) or a new main time frame (main-time frame with a hyphen??) is established. Could it be said? that it doesn't matter -- time differentiation needs not be made. (after all, past is past and pp is used to turn back the clock for that part only??
2)He remarked that it must have seemed as if her promise would fail, or that her words came from a need, not from her heart.
Does this 'would fail' contain a sense of past conditional?