Re: IN SPEECH

CalifJim — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:33:20 GMT

Anonymous
should be in quotation marks

Yes, or in italics.

Anonymous
Can we have a present perfect ...

Not usually. I can't think of a case like that. After you heard it, you have decided to come back again isn't correct.

Re: IN SPEECH

Clive — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:31:08 GMT

Hi,
I was listening to some types of speeches and have some questions.

1.When someone says this, does he have to make it known that it is quoted? Not if he doesn't want to. Such 'rules' are not governed by grammar. A teacher, for example, may insist that a student identify every quotation. I think the written version should be in quotation marks because not being in quotation marks doesn't make sense to me.

Next time is later again.<<< This doesn't make any sense to me. What does it mean?

2.Can we have a present perfect after a dependant clause like "After you heard it" in the past tense? It certainly sounds odd in this example. I can't think of another example in which it sounds OK, although I don't like to say an absolute 'No, never'.

After you heard it, you have decided to come back again. Thank you. Nice to see you all here again.

Best wishes, Clive

IN SPEECH

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:17:49 GMT

Hi,

I was listening to some types of speeches and have some questions.

1.When someone says this, does he have to make it known that it is quoted? I think the written version should be in quotation marks because not being in quotation marks doesn't make sense to me.

Next time is later again.

2.Can we have a present perfect after a dependant clause like "After you heard it" in the past tense?

After you heard it, you have decided to come back again. Thank you. Nice to see you all here again.

Re: "be" in questions in the future or present perfect simple / conditional

Marius Hancu — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 16:03:22 GMT

Both are correct and used.

Try some searches at the New York Times with:
"what would be the result if"
(use quotation marks)
whenever you have such questions.

They have good editors.

See:

3 Results:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=%22what+would+the+result+be%22+&srchst=nyt

3 Results

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=%22what+would+be+the+result+if%22+&srchst=nyt

Re: comparison

Grammar Geek — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:13:15 GMT

"new-release" should have a hyphen because it is modifying the DVD. And I think that DVD is still capitalized in current usage. When you want to name a book, movie, magazine name, etc. you should use italics if you can, or at least quotation marks.

The sentence "three times more people than I hoped go to the church" is okay, but your meaning is not clear. Did you hope for a minimum or a maximum?

I don't think that present perfect is needed in either "I've been expecting" or "I've hoped." Simply "as I expected" or "I hoped" would be fine, I believe.

Story with a diverse use of tenses

jack112 — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 09:50:55 GMT

Playing to Win
by Margaret A. Whitney

1 My daughter is an athlete. Nowadays, this statement wonât strike many parents as unusual, but it
does me. Until her freshman year in high school, Ann was only marginally interested in sport of any
kind. When she played, she didnât swing hard, often dropped the ball, and had an annoying habit of
tittering on field or court.

2 Indifference combined with another factor that did not bode well for a sports career. Ann was
growing up to be beautiful. By eighth grade, nature and orthodontics had produced a 5-foot 8-inch
125-pound, brown-eyed beauty with a wonderful smile. People told her, too. And, as many young
women know, it is considered a satisfactory accomplishment to be pretty and stay pretty. Then you
can simply sit still and enjoy the unconditional positive regard. Ann loved the attention, too, and
didnât consider it demeaning when she was awarded âBest Hair,â female category, in the eighthgrade
yearbook.

3 So it came as a surprise when she became a jock. The first indication that athletic indifference had
ended came when she joined the high school cross-country team. She signed up in early September
and ran third for the team within three days. Not only that. After one of those 3.1 mile races up hill
and down dale on a rainy November afternoon, Ann came home muddy and bedraggled. Her hair
was plastered to her head, and the mascara she had applied so carefully that morning ran in dark
circles under her eyes. This is it, I thought. Wait until Lady Astor1 sees herself. But the kid with the
best eighth grade hair went on to finish the season and subsequently letter2 in cross-country, soccer,
basketball, and softball.

4 I love sports, she tells anyone who will listen. So do I, though my midlife quest for a doctorate
leaves me little time for either playing or watching. My love of sports is bound up with the goals in
my life and my hopes for my three daughters. I have begun to hear the message of sports. It is very
different from many messages that women receive about living, and I think it is good.

5 My husband, for example, talked to Ann differently when he realized she was a serious competitor
and not just someone who wanted to get in shape so sheâd look good in a prom dress. Be aggressive,
heâd advise. Go for the ball. Be intense.

6 Be intense. She came in for some of the most scathing criticism from her dad, when, during
basketball season, her intensity waned. Youâre pretending to play hard, he said. You like it on the
bench? Do you like to watch while your teammates play?

7 I would think, how is this kid reacting to such advice? For years, sheâd been told at home, at school,
by countless advertisements, âBe quiet, Be good, Be still.â When teachers reported that Ann was too
talkative, not obedient enough, too flighty. When I dressed her up in frilly dresses and told her not to
get dirty. When ideals of femininity are still, quiet, cool females in ads whose vacantness passes for
sophistication. How can any adolescent girl know what sheâs up against? Have you ever really
noticed intensity? It is neither quiet nor good. And itâs definitely not pretty.
_________________
1 Lady Astor: wealthy socialite admired for her beauty
2 letter: athletic achievement award

8 In the end, her intensity revived. At half time, sheâd look for her father, and he would come out of
the bleachers to discuss tough defense, finding the open player, squaring up on her jump shot. Iâd
watch them at the edge of the court, a tall man and a tall girl, talking about how to play.

9 Of course, Iâm particularly sensitive at this point in my life to messages about trying hard, being
active, getting better through individual and team effort. Ann, you could barely handle a basketball
two years ago. Now youâre bringing up the ball against the press. Two defenders are after you. You
must dribble, stop, pass. Weâre depending on you. We need you to help us. I wonder if my own
paroxysms of uncertainty would be eased had more people urged meâbe active, go for it!

10 Not that dangers donât lurk for the females of her generation. I occasionally run this horror show in
my own mental movie theatre: an unctuous3 but handsome lawyer-like drone of a young man spies
my Ann. Hmmm, he says, unconsciously to himself, good gene pool, and wouldnât she go well with
my BMW and condo? Then I see Ann with a great new hairdo kissing the drone goodbye-honey and
setting off to the nearest mall with splendid-looking children to spend money.

11 But the other night she came home from softball tryouts at six in the evening. The dark circles under
her eyes were from exhaustion, not makeup. I tried too hard today, she says. I feel like Iâm going to
puke.

12 After she has revived, she explains. She wants to play a particular position. There is competition for
it. I canât let anybody else get my spot, she says, Iâve got to prove that I can do it. Later we find out
that she has not gotten the much-wanted third-base position, but she will start with the varsity team.
My husband talks about the machinations of coaches and tells her to keep trying. Youâre doing fine,
he says. She gets that I-am-going-to-keep-trying look on her face. The horror show vision of Annas-
Stepford-Wife4 fades.

13 Of course, Ann doesnât realize the changes she has wrought, the power of her self-definition. Iâm an
athlete, Ma, she tells me when I suggest participation in the school play or the yearbook. But she has
really caused us all to rethink our views of existence: her younger sisters who consider sports a
natural activity for females, her father whose advocacy of women has increased, and me. Because
when I doubt my own abilities, I say to myself, Get intense, Margaret. Do you like to sit on the
bench?

14 And my intensity revives.

15 I am not suggesting that participation in sports is the answer for all young women. It is not easyâthe
losing, the jealousy, raw competition, and intense personal criticism of performance.

16 And I donât wish to imply that the sports scene is a morality play either. Girlsâ sports can be funny.
You canât forget that out on that field are a bunch of people who know the meaning of the word cute.
During one game I noticed that Ann had a blue ribbon tied on her ponytail, and it dawned on me that
every girl had an identical bow. Somehow I canât picture the Celtics gathered in the locker room of
the Boston Garden agreeing to wear the same colour sweatbands.
_________________
3 unctuous: very smooth, fervent, or earnest, especially in a false or affected way when trying to please or persuade
4 Ann-as-Stepford-Wife: reference to a story by Ira Levin where women are replaced with more passive and beautiful replicas

17 No, what has struck me, amazed me, and made me hold my breath in wonder and in hope is both the
ideal of sport and the reality of a young girl not afraid to do her best.

18 I watch her bringing the ball up the court. We yell encouragement from the stands, though I know
she doesnât hear us. Her face is red with exertion, and her body is concentrated on the task. She
dribbles, draws the defense to her, passes, runs. A teammate passes the ball to her. Theyâve beaten
the press. She heads toward the hoop. Her father watches her, her sisters watch her, I watch her.
And I think, drive, Ann, drive.

Copyright Â© 2001 by the New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission. July 3, 1988.

There is a number next to each paragraph. Could you guys explain to me what's going on? I'm confused with the tenses. Sometimes she uses past tense to talk about her past happenings and then she switches over to present? She uese past tense, present tense, present perfect, etc. I don't get it. I'm lost. I don't follow the story. It's so frustrating to read. What is the point of doing that?

The bold parts are used to show that I'm confused with the tenses/change of tenses.

I also noticed that the writer didn't use quotation marks for her reported speeches? I have italized them to make them stand out. Are they correct like that?

I'm very sorry if I have consumed of lot of your valuable time. Thank you very much in advance for taking your time to read this.

Search results for 'tag:Present perfect tag:Quotation marks' matching tags 'Present perfect' and 'Quotation marks'

Re: IN SPEECH

Re: IN SPEECH

IN SPEECH

Re: "be" in questions in the future or present perfect simple / conditional

Re: comparison

Story with a diverse use of tenses