By Past tenses, Present tenses

GG, could you give a simple reason why the present tense is unusual? As far as I know, we can tell a story in past or present tense. In fact, the original was in past tense and all I did was change it to present tense.

In BrE the past tense is used. I wonder whether the same applies in AmE. It is high time that the Wildlife Department addresses the problem of animal ownership. (incorrect) It is high time that the Wildlife Department addressed the problem of animal ownership. (correct) After it is...

Hi, I am a new member here. I like this forum because it helps me to learn grammar. I have a question about these phrases. " If I had more time, I could have traveled the world" or " If I were you, I would buy a house." when you are saying of writing these phrases, you are in...

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...

1. Past tense: "She almost made it." Present tense: "She almost makes it." -- This is fine grammatically, but, as a standalone sentence (with nothing following "makes it"), it's a relatively unusual thing to want to say in the present tense. It could be...

Thansk, Delmobile. I have another question. Why did you use the past tense? Is the present tense incorrect?

I see. I think I know why it works well for the documentary. Here you try to seperate the two different times using formatting and dots. The same effect was easily achieved by a break in taping. Actually, I don't recall the narator using 'later' in her narration at all. She may have...

Hello, everyone. I learned from my grammar book that we often use present tense to refer to future in "in case-clause". Like: I always take an umbrella in case it rains. I've bought a chicken in case your mother stays to lunch. In those cases, I found that all the verbs in main...

I would never have noticed this thread if someone hadn't told me about it, LOL. Yes, I was told the same thing too, and I always hear and read it that way... that is, with the past tense. If you look for examples from native speakers on the net, you'll see they all use the past. I...

After has/have/had you need to use the past participle. In the case of regular verbs, the past participle is the same as the (simple) past tense: I play; I played; I have played. In the case of irregular verbs, it can be different: I do; I did; I have done. By some quirk of the language, the...