By Past tenses, Direct objects

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...

Hi Mr Liat,I said earlier that the presence of "myself" in "I lay myself in bed" makes the verb transitive. Hence, "lay" here is the present tense of lay (laid, laid) and NOT the past of lie (lay, lain) because the latter is intransitive and cannot take any direct...

Hi there, I hope you can explain/tell the rule as to why these are wrong please: If I will be rich, I would retire. should beIf I were rich, I would retire.-the reasoning I came up with is can't use future tense (will be) here. Past tense can refer to future time. She described me the picture. ...

Hi Inchoateknowledge, A finite clause is a clause that has either present/past tense or a modal verb. What he did has a past tense which means it is a finite clause. An object complement, or object predicative, is a clause element that occurs after the direct object and characterises the...

.... -0- ok, let's put it this way: GB is nothing more than a module in the generative grammar, to be put on a par with such other modules of the theory as X', Case theory or the Theta Theory, although it has been quite incorrectly treated as though it were the whole of the Grammar (Chomsky,...

Hello Not to be rude with you, rvw, I'd be inclined to think to the contrary. Shouldn't we take the noun phrase 'fringe benefits not French benefits' as a whole as an direct object..?? Because when we change similar sentence to the past tense and paraphrase, We ate ten apples, but we didn't...

Hello K.O. That looks good - here's a little more detail: Clause 1 We - subject were spared - passive voice, past tense the storm's fury - noun phrase, object (the storm's - possessive; fury - direct object) Clause 2 but - coordinating conjunction now - adverb are having - modal verb,...

Hello Hela I'm inclined to agree with CJ about your example 2: 'It's (high/about) time she WAS in bed' seems the natural form, because you use this phrase when you have no doubt that the person should be in bed. I agree too that the past tense here indicates: 'by this time, you should...