Search results for 'tag:Simple past tag:Difference between' matching tags 'Simple past' and 'Difference between'

Can we replace WOULD by WAS in such a sentence?

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:53:41 GMT

Hello, there,
In the following sentence:

Born in New York City on Oct. 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt is the second of four children of Theodore and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. At age 6, T.R., his brother Elliott and friend Edith Carow (who would one day be his second wife) watch Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession from the home of T.R.'s grandfather on Manhattan's Union Square.

Can we change the modal verb WOULD into the simple past tense WAS? And what's the difference?
I think that WAS is also acceptable if we change a little bit of the context "who was his second wife", but I cannot explain the difference?
Coud you please help me out? Could you please explain the difference between these two verb systems in such a sentence?
Thank you in advance!

Re: until

Tuongvan — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:42:32 GMT

Hi teachers,

Could you possibly tell me whether there is any difference between the past simple and past perfect in this sentence:

They did not know each other until I introduced them.(simple past)

They did not know each other until I had introduced them.(past perfect)

Thank you in advance

Present Perfect Vs. Simple Past

Magic79 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:57:05 GMT

In an excellent advanced grammar book, Exploring Grammar in Context by Carter & Hughes & McCarthy, this exercise was given on the present perfect.

(page 7, exercise 4, item c)

Choose between the present perfect and past simple tneses for the verbs in brackets. If you think both are equally possible, write both forms.

c) I [buy] a personal stereo but I [sell] it to my teenage duaghter as it [look] silly on me at my age.
My answer:
bought, have sold, looked (all simple past except for sell in the present perfect)
The book answer:
bought, sold, looked (all simple past)

Ofcourse, I want to know why I got it wrong. The reason behind my choice of the present perfect is that it seems that selling the stereo is what needs to be emphasized and brought to the foreground (page 4 under observations says: The examples we have looked at so far point to a difference between (a) things that we want to bring to the foreground and say ' This is newor important or relevant or connected in some way in my mind to NOW ' and (b) things that we want to report/narrate or simply to say ' This is not important any more, or not relevant to now, or I have chosen to separate it in my mind from now.'

Will any native speaker choose my answer without being frown at?

Re: Written english vs spoken english

CalifJim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:24:45 GMT

Yankee
Depending on the personalities and experience of the teachers involved, that's probably the most likely time that someone might just blurt out "So-and-so said such-and-such incorrectly", don't you think?

I think my problem is watching too much Masterpiece Theatre. I'm so used to hearing British English that few of the differences even register anymore. I may be incorrectly attributing my reaction to that of others. The subtlety of the difference between present perfect and simple past, in many cases, such as those we've been discussing, is often lost on me, so my reaction is impatience. "What's the big deal?" I ask. "Just pick one and move on!"

Re: tenses

Clive — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:39:50 GMT

Hi,
what is the difference between had shown and shown
I had shown is Past Perfect tense

shown is a past participle. I wonder if you meant I showed, which is Simple Past.

People often ask about the difference between Past Perfect and Simple Past. First, search the Forum with these terms and you will find lots of discussion. Then, ask any questions that you still have.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Written english vs spoken english

Yankee — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:20:21 GMT

Huevos
The difference between the simple past and the present perfect is just a slight "Sss" sound. "somebody shot the president" versus "somebody's shot the president".

Hi Huevos
If you are a native speaker, then I'm sure you also realize that a native speaker will understand whether that 'sss' sound is there or not. In other words, a native speaker knows whether someone is saying somebody's or somebody. What I'm saying is that in the scenario I gave, I think it is far more likely that an American will use the simple past tense. There won't even be a slight hint of a 'sss' sound connected to the end of the word 'somebody' -- because it just won't be there.

As regards "I ate already", Americans commonly use the words already, yet, and just (for example) with the simple past tense -- especially in spoken English:

- Did you see that movie yet?
- I just saw that movie.
- I already saw that movie./I saw that movie already.

Naturally, we use already, yet, and just with the present perfect as well.

Re: Written english vs spoken english

Huevos — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:56:18 GMT

Yankee
"The president has been shot!"

Yankee, that's passive. The difference between the simple past and the present perfect is just a slight "Sss" sound. "somebody shot the president" versus "somebody's shot the president".

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

Diamondrg — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:40:10 GMT

Hi, YSchneider. I am not a native speaker and this is indeed a tough grammar point for non-native speakers.

Here is an extract from CGEL*:

Did you lock the front door? [5]

in a domestic situation where it is known that the front door is locked at bedtime every night. In that case, [5] is more or less equivalent to Did you
lock the front door at bedtime? (Incidentally, in [5], "the" in "the front door" is another case of situational definiteness; cfS.Uff.)

--

The ATTITUDINAL PAST, used with verbs expressing volition or mental state, reflects the tentative attitude of the speaker, rather than past time.
In the following pairs, both the present and past tenses refer to a present state of mind, but the latter is somewhat more polite:

Do/Did you want to see me now?
I wonder/wondered if you could help us.

--

Where did you put my purse ? [ 1 ]
Where have you put my purse? [2]

The purpose of both of these questions may be to find the purse; but in [1] the speaker seems to ask the addressee to remember a past action; while in [2] the speaker apparently concentrates on the purse's present whereabouts. There are many such cases.

--

Leaving aside such virtual equivalences, we may now focus on the difference between the two constructions, contrasting the meanings of the simple past given in 4.14 with the following meanings of the simple present perfective:

(a) STATE LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

That house has been empty for ages.
Have you known my sister for long?

(b) INDEFINITE EVENT(S) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Have you (ever) been to Florence?
All our children have had measles.

(c) HABIT (ie recurrent event) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Mr Terry has sung in this choir ever since he was a boy.
The province has suffered from disastrous floods throughout its history.

Of these meanings, (a) corresponds to the 'state past' use of the simple past, but differs from it in specifying that the state continues at least up to the present moment (cf: That house was empty for ages - but now it's been sold); (b) corresponds to the 'event past', but differs from it in that the past time in question is indefinite rather than definite (cf: Did you go to Florence (last summer) ?); (c) corresponds to the 'habitual past', but, as with (a), the period identified must continue up to the present.

Note In AmE there is a tendency to use the past tense in preference to the present perfective, especially for the indefinite past; eg: Did you ever go to Florence ? (c/4.13 Note lb], 4.22 Note [a ]).

--

Have you seen the Javanese Art Exhibition? [yet]
Did you see the Javanese Art Exhibition? [when it was here]

The first of these implies that the Exhibition is still open; the second that the Exhibition has finished. From this concern with a period still existing at the present time, it is only a short step to the second implication often associated with the present perfective, viz that the event is recent. The simple present perfective is often used to report a piece of news:

_., , > the news? The president has resigned.

Because of this connotation of recency, B's reply in the following exchange must be considered absurdly inappropriate:

A: Has the postman left any letters? B: Yes, he did six months ago.

Since postmen in general deliver letters daily, the implicit time zone in this case would be no longer than a day.

[Note] In AmE, the simple past is often preferred to the present perfective for the variants of the indefinite past discussed in this section. Compare [6 ], for example, with Did the children come home yet? <esp AmE). Other AmE examples are: I just came back; You told me already; and without an adverb: /*m tired -1 had a long day.

* A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Quirk et al.]

Re: dared to dream

CalifJim — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:36:04 GMT

Interesting. The tense switch did not occur to me as a possible problem. There is certainly no implied if, as in if you (ever) dared to dream (such a situation) -- not to my ear.

I would say it's an abbreviated way of saying situation that you have never dared to dream.

never seems to neutralize the difference between the simple past and the present perfect at times. (The present perfect is usually the "more correct" formulation.)

There is nothing that implies an if in these, for example.

This is a situation [you / we / they] (have) never experienced before.

Henry is good at planning ahead. He often brings up potential problems that [the boss / Kate / the staff / the committee] (has) never thought of.

I (have) never made that statement. It is a statement that I (have) never made.

The same situation does not occur with the past point of view because both the simple past and the present perfect have the same backshift -- the past perfect.

Henry often brought up problems that the boss had never thought of.

______

But aside from the subtleties mentioned above, keep in mind that, in general, the mixing of tenses does not really require exotic explanations. Take the example above:

I (have) never made that statement. It is a statement that I (have) never made.

The 'statement' can be spoken of in a timeless way with the present tense even if certain facts about the statement are expressed in the past. Similarly:

These are the very words he said: blah, blah, blah.

This is the book that I [ read / bought ] last month.

A scar is a trace of something that happened in the past.

Hamlet is a play which was written long ago.

These look like the results of the survey we did last year.

Re: Toeic/ Tense

New2grammar — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:01:58 GMT

To me, (D) can be in the simple past tense or as suggested the past continuous. Do you know the difference between these two tenses?

I was working on my homework when she came home.
I worked my homework and then washed the dishes.

Do you see the difference? The first emphasizes that the activity of doing homework was on-going or temporary (expected to finish soon).