By Plurals, Past tenses

Re: What's the rule(s) for I was vs I were?

was or were In the ordinary past tense of the verb to be, was is the first and third person singular: I was late and were is the second person singular and the plural: You were right. It is not acceptable in standard English to use were for the first and third person singular: I were late,...

Re: Was or Were?

Hi,I think it's definitley "was". The other, "were", doesn't make sense there. There are no conditionals, so it's just a past tense. And it agrees with "it" because that's the way "it's/it was" is used idiomatically:It's John who decided to go.It's my parents who decided to go.It was Jenny who...

Re: These days/Recently/On these days,

Hoa Thai wrote:Hi,Below are phrases that use 'In'. To me, the first one is correct. For the rest, I think using 'In' with plural 'days' is okay, except the last one, which looks and sounds odd. Hi Hoa ThaiThe original question was not simply one of using 'in' with 'days'. There are plenty of...

Re: Can I use 'stati' as the plural of status? Statuses sounds horrible!

Not all words work the same way! The plural of cactus is cacti, but I've learned here the plural of status (in Latin) is status, with a different pronunciation. (And we're not talking in Latin anymore anyway.) Just like sing takes sang in the past, while bring takes brought, not all word with...

Re: I need your help,please.

1. "women" - use plural to match "the elderly" & "are more LIKELY" 2. The goals of our program ARE - use plural verb with plural subject 3. MANY benefits - "Much" is for stuff; "many" is for things you can count. 4. there IS a lot of space (missing verb in clause) ...

Re: let or lets

Hi, can you explain for me this one.We were there yesterday. or We was there yesterday. You need to study the verb 'be', in past tense. I was You were (for both singular and plural) He/she/it was We were They were Next time, please start a new thread for a new question. Thanks, Clive

Re: if

Marius Hancu wrote:It's definitely subjunctive mood. But it's not easy. Dear Marius Hancu,I hope you won't kick me out. From grammatical point of view, I totally agree with you. The if ...., ... would construct gives us a clue that subjunctive is in play, especially Today is the first word...

Re: Verb Tense Issues

Hi, 1. I had to help him because he is my friend. I am confused if the use of the verb "is" in the dependent clause is correct. There is a rule that if the verb in the independent clause is in its past or past perfect form, the verb in the dependent or subordinated clause should also be in its...

Verb Tense Issues

I was wondering if anyone could help me check whether or not these sentences are grammatically sound: 1. I had to help him because he is my friend. I am confused if the use of the verb "is" in the dependent clause is correct. There is a rule that if the verb in the independent clause is in its...

Re: wish clauses

Yoong Liat wrote:Hi GoodmanYou wrote: I have been labeled and called by many descriptions, hinted being “Ignorant” is the first ... I'm not hinting that you're ignorant. I say that if a learner tells me "informal" means "wrong", I'll understand that he says so because he is ignorant. But you...