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

Re: beat or beated or beats

Philip — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:09:41 GMT

Anonymous
Hi there, Do I put beat/beats/beated in the following sentence? Thank you

He almost beat me. Is it past tense or present tense?

In the case of the 3rd-person singular, there is no cause for ambiguity: beat ~ beats. In other cases, such as 3rd-person plural, there could be some ambiguity: they almost beat us yesterday, they almost beat us every time we play. Context would normally make it clear.

Several questions that trouble me ...

JustForFun — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:38:01 GMT

1. After "If I", we must make the next word past tense ? Like If I SAT next to you, or If I SIT next to you ?

2. Why doesn't have instead of doesn't has ? Since doesn't means singular and has is categorized as singular ? He doesn't have instead of doesn't has ?

3. Why "let it go" instead of "let it goes" ? I thought "it" stands for singular ? And they for plural ..

Re: Grammar Suggestion

Mr Wordy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:07:57 GMT

Sitting at my writing desk beside the open window, and working on my English assignment, I was stunned/amazed by the soft evening glow, gently landing on my blank sheet and covering the white space with their yellow and orange shades, seemed like gold.

A few comments:

1. "Stunned" implies that you were shocked, which doesn't seem to fit this gentle and reflective scene. "Amazed" doesn't seem quite right either. You would be "amazed" by something very unusual or unexpected, but a soft evening glow is neither. I would suggest "fascinated" or "captivated".

2. Saying that the "glow" is "gently landing" does not sound quite right to me.

3. "the soft evening glow ... with their" has a mismatch of singular/plural.

4. The last part of the sentence, "seemed like gold", is grammatically faulty because the verb "seemed" does not have a subject (in other words, the sentence construction doesn't indicate what thing it is that "seemed"). You might want to study a simpler sentence such as "I was captivated by the sunset, seemed like gold", which is wrong for the same reason.

The tenses in your sentence are fine. You can write a sentence like this in either the past tense or the present tense. Here, you could alternatively write "Sitting at my writing desk ... working ... I am captivated ...". Using the present tense makes the events seem more immediate, as if you are writing while they're actually happening. To me, the present tense is harder to sustain in long passages of first-person narrative text. I find it can become rather tiresome after a while -- but that's just my personal opinion.

Re: Felt like...

Avangi — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:42:54 GMT

Hi Mad, With this scant context, it could be taken either way. It's pretty confusing.

"Friends" is plural. Was she paired with one particular guy?

Whom is she talking to? Her date??

"Felt" is past tense, but "is" is present tense. Is she still on the date with this guy (or guys) (or girls) when she makes this statement? (like maybe at the very end of it?)

Is Neil her main squeeze? (Sorry, my eyes are getting bad.) Is Nell her main squeeze? Who the h--- is Nell? (Is Lana a guy?)

Anyway, I'm assuming "tonight" is a noun rather than an adverb. "I had to explain about tonight." Not, "Tonight, I felt like I had to explain to Nell."

It's still "tonight" when she makes the statement. It sounds like Nell is not present. If she has already explained to Nell, she must have covered a lot of ground.

But on the other hand, we don't know what it is she wants to explain. Did she feel she had to explain what happened tonight, or did she feel (in the past) that she had to explain that she was planning to go on a date without him/her??

If she's talking to the guy and they're still on the date, maybe it's, "I felt like I had to explain to Nell, but, you know what? I don't feel that way any longer." Maybe she's just telling him that she feels wierd about having felt obligated to tell Nell all her private business.

Or maybe she's warning "him" that this "date" is no secret from Nell, because she felt obligated to tell her/him.

You're asking me, "Did Lana explain to Nell about tonight?" I'll tell you. I don't know.

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

Anonymous — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:08:19 GMT

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, and was for the second person singular and the plural: You was right. In the past subjunctive, however, the situation is more fluid. Historically the past subjunctive of be is were for all persons, singular and plural: I wish she were here; Suppose I were rich; If only they weren't so expensive. It is quite common, though, to use was instead of were for the first and third person singular: I wish she was here; Suppose I was rich. This is perfectly acceptable in colloquial English, but in formal writing it is better to stick to were. Remember that the fixed phrase as it were cannot be changed â never as it was.

Re: Was or Were?

Kooyeen — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:00:43 GMT

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 told me.
It was her friends who told me.

Notice that the verb remains singular even if what follows is in the plural. When someone knocks at the door... Who is it? It's her, Jenny... It's them, our friends...

Re: These days/Recently/On these days,

Yankee — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:28:36 GMT

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 Thai
The original question was not simply one of using 'in' with 'days'. There are plenty of phrases that use those two words together. For example:

In days gone by
In days of old
In days of yore
In those days
In (the) days to come
In the old days
In recent days
In days (rather than in minutes, for example)

The original question also involved the use of the word 'these' -- specifically "In these days,".
I agree with Marius that Angliholic's usage of "In these days," is generally not something that is used in English.
It is quite common, however, to use "in those days" (typically with the simple past tense).

"In this day and age" => OK

"In one of my darkest days" => "on one of my darkest days" / "in one of my darkest hours".
"In these days and ages" => No
"In these days, ...." => No
"In these days of ...." => OK

"In this days ..." => No

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

Grammar Geek — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:09:22 GMT

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 the same general appearance follows the same rules, whether those rules apply to forming a plural or forming a past tense.

Re: I need your help,please.

Avangi — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:36:54 GMT

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) & IN which he could write (or) WHERE he could write

5. (wrong choice of conjunctions) use "but" instead of "or"

6. in ALMOST every country

7. is EXTREMELY important (use adverb form to modify predicate adjective)

8. positive OR negative (conjunction)

9. While I WAS TAKING a walk (past tense to match "saw") & RAKING (wrong words - "talking" for "taking" and "ranking" for "raking")

10. to care FOR their parents

11. five LAPTOP TESTS ("tests" is a noun - object of the preposition - and is plural because there are five. "Laptop" is an adjective in this case and doesn't have to agree. It could be a noun if used alone, like "Five laptops were found to be defective.")

12. INSECTS (plural to agree with animals) & I think "fossilized" is the better adjective & I'd suggest using two separate sentences: "insects. Fossilized" & a period at the end

13. I think this is okay. It needs a period at the end.

Congratulations on your first post!

Re: let or lets

Clive — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:39:24 GMT

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