In Tenses^x, Stative verbs^x

Hello Tallulah and Clive Thank you for the clear answers. I was wrong to think "a period ago" couldn't go with the simple past tense of stative verbs. Many people use sentences like "I stayed/live there several years ago". So, now I understand "I knew her five years ago" is also a correct...

Hi Paco, Here are some comments. (1) ( x ) I knew her five years ago. This is wrong. "Five years ago" is a point-time adverbial and so it can't go with a stative verb "know". It sounds OK to me. My understanding is that you have lost contact with her, thus you don't know her now, you don't have...

Hello guys I come to feel I have misunderstood the usage of "know". I thought previously "know someone" could be a dynamic verb to mean "get acquainted with someone", but now I understand "know someone" can be only a stative verb to mean "be acquainted with someone" or "keep a relationship with...

Hello Mowgli Mowgli wrote: I would prefer past simple "Where were you?" because B isn´t abroad or away any more, they couldn´t have this conversation otherwise. To me, "I went to Malta for a 3 week holiday" sounds natural as the answer. I interpret A might ask "Where have you been?"...

Clive wrote: I didn't know this rule. It sounds good, and yet .. we say it, eg (At a party) Mary, you are looking beautiful this evening. It brings an air of immediacy, of 'right now', to the statement. Perhaps this is a case of language evolving, and a rule that needs revision? English...

Hello Mr. Micawber Thank you for your detailed explanation. The past perfect, 'had hoped', can easily represent a discrete event (prior to another past activity, of course), so we would say 'I had hoped that I would become a doctor, but I discovered that I couldn't stand the sight of...

Hello Roro Excellent writing! I believe you are an advanced English learner, at least a learner much more advanced than me. Anyway, what I feel about the problem you have now is that it rather come from your misunderstanding the tense relation in a sentence using the time connective word ....

Hello Roro As you know I'm an English learner and I myself am not so confident about between the simple tense and the progressive tense. So please use the following as something like junk food for your thought until native speakers give you more decisive answers. Q.1) I think you should...

Hello Guest My grammar books say that the progressive tense with a stative verb is used basically in two ways. Give a notion of development to the state. (1) I am regretting it already. (=I have already begun to regret it) (2) She is resembling her mother more and more. (3) Goods are...

Hello Glee You are welcome! One thing I forgot to say is: (1) Event 1(=V1) UNTIL Event 2 (2) Event 1(=V1) BEFORE Event 2 The construct (1) requires a stative verb or progressive tense for V1. The construct (2) sounds natural rather when V1 is a non-stative verb. paco