In Tenses^x, Present tenses^x

Many fictions mentioned a story in 23th century. It still uses the past tense and present tense. I think, the reason is that people concerned are not always the time, they pay more attention on the story, only the grammarian squeezed a time symbol in that word.

Might we not apply JTT's method and say that the present tense is also tenseless? If I may steal some examples from Professor Bailey's document, which so many forums seem to cite these days: 1. 'Hamlet comes from Honolulu.' (past) 2. 'I declare these knickers officially untwisted.' (present) 3....

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Mr P can't provide an answer for his statement for the very simple reason that his statement was false. May and might are different modal verbs with different modal meanings. One is not present tense and one past tense. They are, like...

Hi, Jim. Thanks for your reply and it really did help me. But what if I say in present tense, would it be still correct? or Would it have different meaning this time like in "I saw him play a soccer match yesterday I saw him playing a soccer match yesterday" ? (1) Do you mind tell me ...=> I...

Objectivity can be maintained while expressing yourself in any tense! I'd match the tense to the meaning. In other words, if you want to state or ask something about the way things are now, use present tense; if you state or ask something about the way things used to be in the past, use past...

As they're all grammatical, all perfectly natural, all highly evident in everday language, I'd say that they illustrate that "concord of tenses" is simply nonsense. Lest there be any doubt. CGEL: Converting into indirect reported speech however, is not a matter of applying rules of grammar that...

Sorry, Jack, I made it too confusing. 1. 'I have got' is a special verb: it's a present perfect form with a present meaning. So for the equivalent of the simple past for 'they have got', you have to say 'they had got'. But that leaves no form for the equivalent of the past perfect. Think of it...

Neither "had", "lived", nor "went" are parts of the verb "to be". Therefore it is impossible to say whether they are past indicative forms or past subjunctive forms. Other than forms, we also have what I call "feelings in the head". In that sense of "subjunctive" (i.e., a subjunctive feeling...

Hi, I often hear from staffs saying "Did you want a bag?" in a shop while buying an item. Why is that, "did"? They say it even though I didn't say anything about a bag. Why it is not "do"? I know more polite way of saying is, "Would you like", but I am not really sure why they say in past...

The first is the correct one. These sentences are definitional, so they use present tense. Without "is" to make "associated" a past participal there is no marker of present tense. On the other hand, if you remove the "that", you remove the marker for a relative clause. By doing that you are...