By Dates, Tenses

Re: I thought a spider is/was an insect

If you'll note the time of post, Jim and I posted a minute apart, clearly writing our posts at the same time. NO! "I thought..." REQUIRES past. Present tense is NOT possible! It doesn't have to turn out to be false.It can turn out that what you thought came true. A:...

Re: Reported Speech

Hello. Sorry to hear you're feeling uncomfortable with this type of activity. But you're not alone: I would be, too!The sentences lack context, which makes it difficult to tell when tense changes are necessary and when they are not (among other things).There is one sentence that is wrong...

Re: Need help on correct sentences.

Hi Goodman, this is new for me. Need the "tense qualifier" be in the same sentence? - A.

Re: Need help on correct sentences.

Hi LW, I am afraid the teacher’s comment was valid. When we use present tense, we are inferring something that regularly happens as a routine. i.e. The mailman usually delivers the mails around 11 o’clock everyday.I go to the grocery stores twice a week. We need a tense qualifier to validate...

Re: Please help me with slang..:-(

Was the speaker middle-aged? It could mean that he was six months away from the date when he would have worked for the company for 20 years. (oh, what fun we're having with verb tenses) This date might be important because it's when his pension or other retirement plan would become...

Re: Please help to me to write perfect Motivation letter

Hello, I'll be really glad if somebody checks my motivation letter draft too. I've gone through this forum and copied some ideas and even senteces into that. I'm not sure if I can ask you also for grammar correction, but if somebody correct (maybe "fills in" is more appropriate, plenty of them...

meaning of : "kept his date with the monument of love"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday visited the Taj Mahal, but contrary to intense speculation he was not accompanied by his girlfriend Carla Bruni. Accompanied by a big French delegation, Sarkozy, who is currently involved romantically with model-turned singer Bruni, kept his date...

Re: please correct this

I have a good piece of news to report: - a piece of good news? Our Center just had a new computer room and bathroom installed. - Center - why capitalization? came from the general contributions of our Mothers of Our Neighborhood Associations - general or generous? and the...

Re: Sequence of tenses (#4)

These things have not yet happened -- but they still could. 1. We don't know yet if "it" is true or not. It may (in the future) turn out to be true... but it may not. 2. The company has not YET taken the anti-takeover measures. It may or may not do so in the future. 3. The same: The party has...

Sequence of tenses (#4)

Could anybody please help me understand why the following underlined parts are kept as a present tense, not a past tense? In my understanding, if they are followed by the rules of the "sequence of tenses," they should be a past tense, no?? Example 1: It would be unforgivable if this turns out...