In American English^x, Past tenses^x

CalifJim wrote: A newspaper might announce this as: Professor Johnson has (recently) discovered a new phenomenon called hyperionization, which he claims will be of invaluable use to mankind. Note that a similar set of criteria is used to report deaths. We don't say Shakespeare has died...

<Such exchanges do not occur in American English! I'm beginning to wonder which foreign language you two are discussing!> Are you saying that if it doesn't happen in AE, then it must be a foreign language? I get from your statement "It can't be English if it doesn't occur in AE". ...

Anonymous wrote: The sentence is complete, but the correct past tense of "dive" is dove not dived. Your sentence should say,"I dove five feet deep." The past tense of 'dive' is 'dived' (British English). The past tense of 'dive' is 'dove' (American English).

I'm with Clive in that either can be used. American English seems to favor dreamed and British English leans toward dreamt . (c.f. leaned/leant ; smelled/smelt ; burned/burnt ). You use them as past tense: I dreamed/dreamt of a far off land . Siggy

3/ What's the difference between : I would like to see it VS I should like to see it. In American English, you do not use "I should" to mean "I would like to," which translates roughly into "Please, may I see it." I'm sure you can construct a situation in which you'd say "I should like to...

I'm not familiar with MLB. In American English it is very common to omit the "t" when it follows a stressed syllable ending in "n" and precedes an unstressed syllable beginning with a vowel. "winter" and "winner" are indistinguishable. The absence of the t sound here is not an aspirated t...

Goodman Why did you twist my message every time? When and where did I say such a thing like "just" and "already" are uncommon in BrE? I said to Daxiao (not to you!) that the use of such adverbs with the simple past tense is one of the features of AmE. ENGLISH TENSE The present perfect is used...

Old Eladio wrote: Please, tell me which one (ones) of these sentences are correct and which one is the most common ? 1.- I haven’t got used to drinking wine. 2.- I haven’t gotten to drinking wine. 3.- I got not used to drinking wine. 4.- I didn't get used to drink wine. ...

You're welcome, Jake! I've been thinking about this lately, and in American English, the use of "wish" is possible with the past tense, and I notice that you have been trying to construct sentences with this pattern. The problem you are running into is that you are putting a punctual...

Are they really equivalent to each other? CalifJim wrote: I saw the movie. = I watched the movie. I have seen that movie. = I have watched that movie. I would say that in the present or future tense there is really not much difference between the two. However, in the past tenses, I...