Search results for 'tag:Idioms tag:Past tenses' matching tags 'Idioms' and 'Past tenses'

Re: functionality of would and could in the present and past

CalifJim — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:37:49 GMT

Are they wrong since the modal usages lack the fundamental conditional uses of the modals 'would' and 'could'? Not sure what you're asking. The correct sequence of tenses applies to conditionals as well as to non-conditionals.

1. We are all watching in a sort of stunned silence waiting to see if we would be asked for money or if we are simply his audience.
No conditional element present, thus 'will' is correct? Right? will is correct, but not for the reason that no conditional element is present. will is correct because will goes with are.

2. While I am reading it, I could not help being concerned about young people in this country.
Same here too. No conditional element present, so 'can' is correct? Right or wrong? Same here. can is correct because it goes with the present tense I am.

So, except those modal uses like politeness for 'would', most modal uses of 'would' and 'could' involve conditional nature. Right or wrong? It depends on the text you're reading. You may find a text that uses would or could in non-conditional contexts quite often.

Could you please answer these? -- case of a modal use for politeness. True.

Generally, will and can go with the present tense; would and could go with the past tense. It doesn't matter whether they are used in a conditional pattern or not.

Henry wants to know where he can find a good restaurant. / Henry wanted to know where he could find a good restaurant.

Kate needs a dress that will make her look slim. / Kate wanted a dress that would make her look slim.

If they sign the contract, they can take possession of the car immediately. / If they signed the contract, they could take possession of the car immediately.

If he hurries, he will arrive on time. / If he hurried, he would arrive on time.

_________________

Occasionally would and could go with the present tense, but these should be regarded as special cases. For example, take the idiom would like to:

I would like to buy the coat which is on sale.

The would and could of politeness are also usually combined with the present tense.

Could you please help me move these books which are lying on the floor?

Re: can you say

Avangi — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:32:07 GMT

You're too fast for me. You beat my edit again. I was going to add, "in front of you" may be ambiguous. I was thinking of it as which window? The window in front of you.

But in the original sentence, "I opened the window in front of you, haven't you seen?" - "in front of you" could be the fixed idiom (I think) meaning "I did it while you were addressing me." In other words, I had your attention. (I guess I'm using "addressing" as when a golfer says, "I'm addressing the ball.") If this is the meaning of "in front of you," then your call for past tense may be correct.

Re: bare-infinitive vs. to-infinitive

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:58:16 GMT

Hello

I am Scottish and a TEFL teacher. The two sentences mean the same, there is no difference whether you use to inf or not. It is past tense. No ref. to future or coincidence. Mary made her husband clean the bathroom make means forced (he did not want to do it) Neve heard of that Idiom. More common Idiom is Money makes the world go round.

Hope this is of help to you.

Re: before leaving / he is leaving

Kooyeen — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:45:09 GMT

Hi,
in that example there's "just now" and that idiom means "a short time ago", so it's ok to use the past tense. I saw your sister just now.

That's how I use it, at least.
PS: I'm not saying (b) is ok. I think it's odd.

Re: got/gotten

Yankee — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:42:30 GMT

Fandorin
Hi. Yes, both of the words may be used. Simply "have(has) got" tend to be used side by side with have (has,had).
have(had,has) got = have(has,had). But the expression "had got" is rarely used in contemporary grammar.

Hi Fandorin

You seem to be mixing things up.

Angliholic's sentence is not an example of the idiomatic "to have got", which means basically the same thing as "to have" or "to possess".
In that idiom, it is not possible to change the word 'got' to 'gotten' -- not even in American English. It would be unusual to find "to have got" used in the past tense (i.e. had got).

Angliholic's sentence uses the verb "to get" in the past perfect. To form the past perfect of the verb "to get", you need had+gotten in AmE or had+got in BE.
The past perfect of the verb "to get" is in current use and is used just as often as the past perfect of any other verb.

Re: Question 1: Does an adverb always precede the word it modifies?

Grammar Geek — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:15:09 GMT

Jackson6612 wrote:

Hi G.G.

1: What do you mean by ''I'm assuming you mean immediately after...''? In answering your question, I made the assumption that you wanted to know about adjectives that came immedately after the nouns they modify, not predicate adjectives. In "He is happy" happy is after the word He, but there is a verb that links them together. The adjective doesn't come right after the noun.

2: What are these set nouns? Do you call 'compound nouns' set nouns in AmE? No. A compound noun is a single word formed from two or more nounds. When I say it's a "set" phrase or noun, I met it comes together as a set. Idioms are also set phrases.

3: I would have written this sentence ''I thought this was a pretty good description'' as:

I think this is a pretty good description.

Is my way also correct? Why did you use past tense? When I looked at it, it seemed good. I didn't spend enough time studying it to see if it was really good. Once I found it and thought it was good enough to add to the discussion. In contast, I continue to think that the OWL at Purdue is a great resource. I didn't change my mind about the link I gave you - I just stopped thinking about it altogether.

Re: the time passes so quickly

Grammar Geek — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:17:21 GMT

Hi Anon,

"has passed" isn't past tense - it's present perfect. You're right, "quick" doesn't sound good, but "quickly" sounds just fine. "The time has passed so quickly" is so commonly said that it might as well be an idiom.

It's always great to have new contributors, but perhaps you might be interested in threads that are more recent?

Re: The department store will be open on Jan. 1 next year.

Goodman — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:46:33 GMT

Yankee wrote:
Hi Goodman
You can look at "to welcome someone with open arms" as an idiom. This idiom contains the verb 'welcome'.

Simple past tense, active voice: They welcomed him with open arms.
Simple past tense, passive voive: He was welcomed with open arms (by them). 'Welcomed' is a past participle here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The word 'welcome' is not a past participle.

The word 'welcome' can be used as an adjective:
- He is always a welcome visitor.
- We were welcome to visit them whenever we wanted.

The previous sentence is not very different from saying "We were free to visit". The word 'free' is an adjective and is used the same way as 'welcome'.
The word 'free' is not a past participle, and neither is 'welcome'.

The word 'welcome' can also be used as a noun:
- That was quite a welcome!
- He eventually wore out his welcome.
- Our neighbors gave us a very warm welcome when we moved into our new house.

It is always possible to reword a sentence. For example, you can easily reword the last sentence, and use 'welcome' as a verb instead of as a noun:
- When we moved into our new house, we were welcomed very warmly by our neighbors.
(This sentence contains the verb 'welcome' in the simple past tense, passive voice, and 'welcomed' = past participle)

You can also reword the same sentence using the verb 'welcome' in the active voice:
- Our neighbors welcomed us very warmly when we moved into our new house.
In this case, the word 'welcomed' is the simple past tense of a regular verb.

Hi Amy,

I was wondering if you would mind spending just a little more time shedding some light on my questions which are driving me crazy. I realized I had the past participle of "welcome" a little mixed up. But the thing that bothered me the most is this. No one really explained the discrepencies between the Google entries with "welcome" and "welcomed". All these sentences below are obviously constructed in Passive voice if I am not mistaken, and to to that we need a "verb to be + past participle"; correct? Now as I learned from others that the past participle of the verb "welcome" is "welcomed", If it's true, then why do so many websites have infomation with the word written as "welcome". Mind you, many were written by natives. Honestly, I always thought "welcome" was the correct past participle form. Rarely had I seen people write "he was a welcomed guest" or "that is a welcomed sight" in my past experience. If "welcomed" is the true past tense and past participle of "welcome", then why are these sentences so inconsistent? Please note the sentences quoted by others which are the same construction as the ones I quoted from Google. But mine's were written as "welcome" and others were as "welcomed".

Is this a transformation of language that we are not aware of, or a linguistic mutation? What is your take? I know we have different opinions in the past. However, I regard you, along with few others as the experts on the subject. I am hoping to hear the experts' opinions. Despite the many explanations in my past posts, I don't think my point was well understood.

Thanks in advance!

Others quoted:

In England he was welcomed by Thomas Campbell, the poet, who introduced him to Scott, ... Harriet Beecher Stowe - A Short Biographical Dictionary. ...
classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/jcousin/bl-jcousin-bio-i.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages - Note

To me, 'welcomed' in your sentence is a verb in the passive voice. Look at the above sentence: "In England he was welcomed by Thomas Campbell..." In the active voice, it would be "Thomas Campbell welcomed him." It is clear from this sentence that 'Welcomed' is indeed a verb.

Goodman's search results:

History of Alexandria: The Founding

When he reached Memphis in Egypt, he was welcome by the people who hated Persian rule. He was twenty five years old. Yet, he was King of Macedon. ...
ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/Alexandria/History/founding.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

:: Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn

He was welcome by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wanna Saengaramruang, Head of the German Section, faculty members and students majoring in German. ...
www.arts.chula.ac.th/eng/coop.htm - 62k - Cached - Similar pages

Taiwan Communique no. 97

On his flight back to Taiwan, president Chen visited Houston, where he was welcome by House majority whip Tom Delay (R-TX) who entertained president Chen ...
www.taiwandc.org/twcom/97-no1.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

The Palm Sunday at âASTRAâ Museum - ASTRA Sibiu

The entrance in Jerusalem of the Saviour riding an ass and the way he was welcome by the leaders of Judeans is the very day when his life was decided and ...
www.muzeulastra.ro/evenimente/en_eveniment.php?id=211&PHPSESSID=0105592c6c67751875f03d390f4 - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

the classical side of pianist: VITALIJ KUPRIJ

Vitalij succesfully completed his Beethoven performances in Lecce South of Italy and returned to Rome where he was welcome by his manager Chris Catena who ...
www.vitalijkuprij.com/classical/news.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages

Fausta's blog

Eventually he reached the grand stand where he was welcome by the top brass and a boat load of officers. It was rather disturbing to see so many military in..

Re: The department store will be open on Jan. 1 next year.

Yankee — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:30:33 GMT

Hi Goodman
You can look at "to welcome someone with open arms" as an idiom. This idiom contains the verb 'welcome'.

Simple past tense, active voice: They welcomed him with open arms.
Simple past tense, passive voive: He was welcomed with open arms (by them). 'Welcomed' is a past participle here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The word 'welcome' is not a past participle.

The word 'welcome' can be used as an adjective:
- He is always a welcome visitor.
- We were welcome to visit them whenever we wanted.

The previous sentence is not very different from saying "We were free to visit". The word 'free' is an adjective and is used the same way as 'welcome'.
The word 'free' is not a past participle, and neither is 'welcome'.

The word 'welcome' can also be used as a noun:
- That was quite a welcome!
- He eventually wore out his welcome.
- Our neighbors gave us a very warm welcome when we moved into our new house.

It is always possible to reword a sentence. For example, you can easily reword the last sentence, and use 'welcome' as a verb instead of as a noun:
- When we moved into our new house, we were welcomed very warmly by our neighbors.
(This sentence contains the verb 'welcome' in the simple past tense, passive voice, and 'welcomed' = past participle)

You can also reword the same sentence using the verb 'welcome' in the active voice:
- Our neighbors welcomed us very warmly when we moved into our new house.
In this case, the word 'welcomed' is the simple past tense of a regular verb.

Re: If I were to do... / If I had to do...

Marius Hancu — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:41:08 GMT

Inchoateknowledge wrote:
Marius Hancu wrote:
Inchoateknowledge wrote:

The modal idiom to be to is used to express requirement, just like to have to

Not in such contexts, IMO, not with "were."

Hi Marius,

why not? Past tense, conditional mood.

IMO, to be to may (i.e. not always) describe requirement/obligation only in the indicative.

In the conditional, it mainly expresses/defines a hypothetical condition or a choice of possibilities. And the sentences in your original posting are in present time, even if they use the past tense.

Search results for 'tag:Idioms tag:Past tenses' matching tags 'Idioms' and 'Past tenses'

Re: functionality of would and could in the present and past

Re: can you say

Re: bare-infinitive vs. to-infinitive

Re: before leaving / he is leaving

Re: got/gotten

Re: Question 1: Does an adverb always precede the word it modifies?

Re: the time passes so quickly

Re: The department store will be open on Jan. 1 next year.

When he reached Memphis in Egypt, he was welcome by the people who hated Persian rule. He was twenty five years old. Yet, he was King of Macedon. ...ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/Alexandria/History/founding.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

:: Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn

He was welcome by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wanna Saengaramruang, Head of the German Section, faculty members and students majoring in German. ...www.arts.chula.ac.th/eng/coop.htm - 62k - Cached - Similar pages

Taiwan Communique no. 97

On his flight back to Taiwan, president Chen visited Houston, where he was welcome by House majority whip Tom Delay (R-TX) who entertained president Chen ...www.taiwandc.org/twcom/97-no1.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

The Palm Sunday at âASTRAâ Museum - ASTRA Sibiu

The entrance in Jerusalem of the Saviour riding an ass and the way he was welcome by the leaders of Judeans is the very day when his life was decided and ...www.muzeulastra.ro/evenimente/en_eveniment.php?id=211&PHPSESSID=0105592c6c67751875f03d390f4 - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

the classical side of pianist: VITALIJ KUPRIJ

Vitalij succesfully completed his Beethoven performances in Lecce South of Italy and returned to Rome where he was welcome by his manager Chris Catena who ...www.vitalijkuprij.com/classical/news.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages

Fausta's blog

Eventually he reached the grand stand where he was welcome by the top brass and a boat load of officers. It was rather disturbing to see so many military in..

Re: The department store will be open on Jan. 1 next year.

Re: If I were to do... / If I had to do...

When he reached Memphis in Egypt, he was welcome by the people who hated Persian rule. He was twenty five years old. Yet, he was King of Macedon. ...
ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/Alexandria/History/founding.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

He was welcome by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wanna Saengaramruang, Head of the German Section, faculty members and students majoring in German. ...
www.arts.chula.ac.th/eng/coop.htm - 62k - Cached - Similar pages

On his flight back to Taiwan, president Chen visited Houston, where he was welcome by House majority whip Tom Delay (R-TX) who entertained president Chen ...
www.taiwandc.org/twcom/97-no1.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

The Palm Sunday at âASTRAâ Museum - ASTRA Sibiu

The entrance in Jerusalem of the Saviour riding an ass and the way he was welcome by the leaders of Judeans is the very day when his life was decided and ...
www.muzeulastra.ro/evenimente/en_eveniment.php?id=211&PHPSESSID=0105592c6c67751875f03d390f4 - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

Vitalij succesfully completed his Beethoven performances in Lecce South of Italy and returned to Rome where he was welcome by his manager Chris Catena who ...
www.vitalijkuprij.com/classical/news.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages