Search results for 'tag:Difference between tag:Past tenses' matching tags 'Difference between' and 'Past tenses'

Re: Tenses

Doll — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:54:33 GMT

My try:

Uses of phrase "found out":
(the city is going to raise taxes and the action of raising taxes hasn't iniitated.)
1) I found out that the city is going to/will/is planning to raise taxes.
I don't see much difference with this:
I found out that the city ~~would~~ will raise taxes. The choice of tenses here depends on the meaning you want to give us. If you mean that there is a more planning in this situation, "going to or planning to " can be used. But I prefer "will" with find out because "will" means something more immeadiate or something decided or learned at the time of speaking.

(It's news that my friend is going to get married and he hasn't married.)
2) I found out my friend is going to/will/is planning to get married.
I don't see much difference with this:
I found out my friend ~~would~~ will get married. Hmm, here you know that he is going to get married. You have an initial informationa bout this so planning to or going to will be more proper.

Use of word "said":
3) My friend said that the city will/ is going to raise taxes.
I see a difference with this and the sentence below seems to be OKbut not as good as the above sentence Why? Is that because raising taxes is still in a planning stage and has not been instituted?
My friend said that the city would raise taxes. I would say that this sentence is wrong. "said that, found out that" is a past tense in form but their meanings is relarted with present events so you shouldn't use a past tense if you are talking about a present event. The difference between will and going to is simply can be explanied as I told you before. If you want a detailed information, search them in the search box above. You will find threads discussing it.
4) My friend said the city will/is going to raise taxes after July 7th.
My friend said that the city would be raising taxes after the date of July 7th.?? -- how would you rewrite this with shifting-back the tense when a future date is involved.

Hmm, it is simple. Changing the tenses will help you. My friend said that the city was going to/would raise taxes after July 7th. (Reported speech) You report the news to your friend so there is nothing wrong with tense change.

from abc

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:14:32 GMT

Hello friends,

I want to know to difference between past tense and present perfect. I always get confused with these pls help me.Give some examples.

Re: wife/girlfriend...advance/further

Dawnstorm — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:45:56 GMT

Grammar Geek
I think Nona's example about talking about your mother when she was a child and still referring to her as your mother is a good analogy.

First,. let me say that I agree usage-wise Nona and you. I also think that the mother-example is a good one - but it's not a perfect one.

It's a good one, because it demonstrates the difference between the time of action and the time of speaking. Noun references are routinely rooted in the present, even in past tense senteces, and the mother-example demonstrates that.

But there is a cognitive difference in "married his wife", as there is a semantic relationship between the verb "marry" and the noun "wife", in so far as the act of marrying results in wife-status. So it's quite possible that individual speakers (native speakers, even) have an intuitive correctness condition that doesn't allow the word "wife" as the object of the verb "marry", quite independent of tense. To summarise, I think part of the argument is lexical: what sort of words can the verb "marry" select as direct objects?

The thing is, disliking "wife" as the direct object of "marry" is reasonable. It's somewhat similar to "The Queen knighted the knight." (but without the etymological close relation that adds to the oddness). Or, "The army conscripted the soldier." Or "The jury pronounced the prisoner guilty."

It's an interesting discussion, really. Since "married his wife" doesn't sound odd to me at all (I'm not a native speaker), and since native speakers agree, I wonder why the tense relation between verb and noun-naming can override nosensical direct-object relation. (I do think it's a disjunction between the time-levels that's at issue here; the noun-reference is firmly in the present - referring to a specific person.)

Re: Please correct me! Thank you so much!

Pleasecorrectme — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:48:38 GMT

Thank you so much ! That helps me a lot ! But , I have some english grammar question I am still confuse about.

julielai

I began to imagine what his reaction would be ~~like~~ when he sees this game-set. Will he cry? Will he jump with delight?

Imagine how happy Nat will be when he receives my present!

If there is a ' would ' , I am not allow to put any singular or past tense ?

Oh, and should the ' will ' be corrected to would?
So , is would the past tense of will ? I always thought there is a difference between will and would .

Re: difference between may and might

CalifJim — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:53:07 GMT

There is no difference between may and might worth agonizing about. may sounds a bit more formal to my ear. And may cannot be used where a past tense is required in tense matching: I knew I might be late. Not I knew I may be late. In other situations, both are used the same way.

Use the search box and you will find an amazing number of posts on this subject.

Re: Fell or fallen

Creativeguru — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:46:59 GMT

Do you know that fallen is the past participle of fall and fell is the past tense?>>No

Can you eleborate on it or give me references and what is basic difference between past tense and past participle?

Re: I thought

CalifJim — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:12:17 GMT

New2grammar
What's the difference between "I thought I knew" and " I thought I know"?

I was told that the verb following "I thought" must be past tense.

Kooyeen has the answer:

you need to use the past tense after verbs like thought, didn't think, felt, knew, etc. Verbs like those seem to force a backshift in tense because they are more related to your "feelings" at a certain moment in the past than the "information" you had or got

Memorize:

I thought I knew / I thought I had to / I thought I was / I thought they were / I thought I could / I thought they would / ...

I knew I had to / I knew I was / I knew they were / I knew I could / I knew they would / I knew they wanted / ...

I felt I knew / I felt I had to / I felt I was / I felt they were / I felt I could / I felt he would / ...

I hoped I was / I hoped they were / I hoped I could / I hoped I didn't have to ...

I believed I knew / I believed I could / I believed they were / I believed I was / ...

I didn't think ... / I didn't know ... / ... / Did you know ...? / Did you feel ...? / ... (same for negations and questions)

Adding that doesn't change the basic principle here: I thought that I knew ...

_____________

And don't attempt to use present tense after thought, knew, felt, hoped, or believed -- and you'll be fine. You'll sound just like a native speaker.

But put a present tense there (I knew they are / I thought I am / I hoped I can / ...), and you'll expose yourself immediately as a non-native!!!

P.S. If you make a distinct pause in speech to indicate a direct quote, these principles do not apply:

I thought, "I know how to do that. Why are they saying I don't?"

I thought [ short pause ] I know how to ...

You absolutely cannot use the complementizer that in this case:

*I thought [ short pause ] that I know how to ... (NO!)

Re: I thought

Yoong Liat — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:12:15 GMT

New2grammar

What's the difference between "I thought I knew" and " I thought I know"?

I was told that the verb following "I thought" must be past tense.

Could a native speaker please respond to New2grammar's query?

Many thanks.

I thought

New2grammar — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:29:25 GMT

What's the difference between "I thought I knew" and " I thought I know"?

I was told that the verb following "I thougt" must be past tense.

(Goodman, hope you don't mind me using your words. I don't mean to pick on you,
just trying to learn from your posts and any other gurus' here. Maybe you could reply to this)

Thanks in advance.

Editing of paragraph/1

bhikkhu1991 — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:49:08 GMT

An Anonymous' s post on the subject of the ' difference between 'can' and ' able ' contains a post thread (#354509 ) in which Mister Micawber says that

'can' and ' be able to ' have the same meaning and instructs the main poster to use ' I can't read. ' and ' I am not able to read .'

Hello Grammar Teacher/Teachers,

1. Could you help me to edit the paragraph, please ?

2. Is it possible to replace all the underlined words with the past tenses even though the post and the thread are existing in the record of the English forums now ?