By Past tenses, Simple present

Hi Ant222, My English skill is not in the “grammarian” class but I will give it my best attempt to explain it. It may not may not be agreeable with the experts. In many instances during casual conversations, we can bet by with simple past tense and no one will flag you for errors. However, to...

Sorry to have confused all of you. My statement"I thought *only* simple present was correct, but I thought wrong. I now know that both present tense and past tense are possible" was only referring to the sample sentence given by Jim(a) "My professor said that spiders are (were...

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:...

I thought *only* simple present is (oops, should be was) correct, but I thought wrong. I now know that both present tense and past tense are possible. Sorry for the confusion.I always have problems on this. How to avoid this confusion?When I say "I thought", does it mean what "I...

Thank you very much indeed, Jim. That's a great explanation. You cleared all my doubts. Forgive me for thinking out loud as I hope you can correct me if I am still making any mistakes. Firstly, I didn't notice that it was (can only use "was", "is" not possible?) ...

Hi Avangi, I wonder why you use the simple present when the verb is in the past tense "opened". Could you explain? My guess is "don't you see the opened window" instead of "don't you see I opened it" which is wrong and requires "didn't".

John becomes ill. --> simple present tense. Perhaps John gets sick every time he rides a roller coaster, for example. John became ill. --> simple past tense. Perhaps John got sick last Monday, for example.

Hi AvangiTo me, the word 'if' is used like 'whenever' in your sentence, and the word 'will' is used to indicate a habitual or repeated action (i.e. in that sentence, you are saying it is not your habit to wonder about things such as closed doors while you are on vacation)....

Hi, So it is simple present okay for report writing? No. Very generally speaking, a report should normally use past tense, because it is reporting past events. eg Heat was applied to the chemical. At 40 degrees, it ignited. eg When I searched the robber, I found he had a gun in his pocket. I...

Hi MapleThere is nothing about the word 'for' that should suggest that you need to use the 'past perfect'. If that's a "rule" you've learned somewhere along the line, I strongly suggest you try to "unlearn" it fast. The word 'for' can be used...