Search results for 'tag:Tenses tag:Sample' matching tags 'Tenses' and 'Sample'

Names of different tenses

Raen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:54:20 GMT

if there are any. I believe there are, and saw them mentioned in different posts on the forum although didn't pay attention to them. The grammar book I'm studying all lump them up into one catagory: helping verbs. But I'd like to know if most people have and use names for the different types of tenses. Here are the sample sentences I wish to know the names of the tenses they are of:

I am taking her to the movie.

He will be working for your father's law firm.

I took the test and passed!

She has taken the medicine for her cold.

She had taken the job before she moved here.

I have been thinking about going abroad for higher education.

He had been living in France before he was caught.

It would have cost me a fortune to buy that coat.

He would have had completed the task if he had asked for help.

It would have been better if we had gone.

I learned the names of these tenses in my own language, but I don't know the English name for each tense(except past tense) . Thanks for anyone's help.

Raen

What is the suitable tense for the minutes of meeting?

sebayanpendam — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:16:40 GMT

Dear Sir,

When I was school, my english teachers never told me what was the suitable tense for the meeting minutes.Even now, I am still confused, stop and try to decide whether to use the present or the past tense for example, things like strategies or plans which will be implemented but not written as a reported speech.

Can you give a good sample of the minutes of meeting?

By the way, the noun for minutes is spelt with an 's' right?

Thank you.

Re: tense - why wrong?

Grammar Geek — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:44:07 GMT

Your revision is good, but your absolute statement about not using past perfect for a time in the past is wrong.

Yesterday, we had just finished our lunch when the police stormed the house. They had mistaken our house for our neigbhors' and apologized, but not before they had scared the children quite badly.

(In that sample, the last "had" could be omitted - the word "before" tells you when it occurred.)

You can use the past perfect with a prior point in time - the key is that you want to show another action that happened after: Yesterday, we had already eaten pizza when Jane arrived with a plate of sandwhiches. With words like "just" or "already" the past perfect is needed. With words like "before" or "after" or "then," it's not needed at all.

Re: I thought a spider is/was an insect

Pter — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:53:09 GMT

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 also possible) insects!" <-- reported speech

not the original sentence

(b) "I thought a spider was an insect" <-- not reported speech

My thoughts in my last post were presented in two paragraphs, the first one was about (b) and the second one was about (a).

Regarding the "universal falsehood", yes, I knew you were talking about just what the speaker believed, not necessarily the reality. You used this phrase just because I had been using "universal truths" to describe something that was in fact believed to be false.

Now I think I understand all of what you explained including Barbara's second post, but I am not sure you understand what I said. Thanks again.

Re: I thought a spider is/was an insect

CalifJim — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:30:44 GMT

Pter
And universal falsehood. What a phrase! This is important because we are not talking about something that is always true. As a result, we can only use the past tense in sentences starting with "I thought it was". The "was" is not the result of backshifting. It is used instead to indicate that the believe was hold true in the past but is now found to be false.

My apologies for introducing a joke! The "universal falsehood" reference is a complete joke! It doesn't matter whether what is reported is universally true or unversally false. What's important is that in the speaker's mind it is universally (or eternally, if you wish) true. In that way, in the right context, you can even have the reported speech: The scientist said that the earth is flat.

Consequently, the "was" truly IS the result of backshifting after "thought". It has nothing to do with beliefs considered true in the past but false in the present. You can banish all such logic from your mind. You came to believe some of these things because I put you off the track with my joke.

I don't know which sample sentences you are referring to, but after thought, knew, hoped, believed, and felt, you always need a past tense.

____

I didn't notice that it was not reported speech. (natural, normal)

I didn't notice that it's not reported speech. (also possible, less used)

You may find that each main clause verb has its own idiosyncracies with regard to backshifting. notice acts a little like a reporting verb. What you noticed may still be quite noticeable to your listener, and you may want to emphasize this fact. Nevertheless, keep this is mind: Backshifting is never wrong.

____

OK. I went back and found these. I think these are the samples you were referring to. The first choices shown are the ones that came to my mind first. It's not really more complicated than that. The second choice is also perfectly grammatical except as noted in the second sentence, where backshifting is required.

My professor said that spiders are (were also possible) insects! I didn't think they were (are not possible). I think he is (was also possible) wrong.

Re: I thought a spider is/was an insect

Pter — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:53:37 GMT

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?) not reported speech! And universal falsehood. What a phrase! This is important because we are not talking about something that is always true. As a result, we can only use the past tense in sentences starting with "I thought it was". The "was" is not the result of backshifting. It is used instead to indicate that the believe was hold true in the past but is now found to be false.

Secondly, both present tense and past tense are possible in reported speech when talking about universal truths or things that still hold true at the present moment. This has been confusing me for a long time because I was taught to use the simple present in such cases and I thought *only* simple present is correct. It has been troubling me because sometimes I saw past tense being used and I always wondered why.

While I was waiting eagerly for your reply, I opened Randolph Quirk's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, which I recently bought from Amazon. It doesn't mention the first point (or I just couldn't find it), but on the second point, it totally agrees with you!

You are really a great teacher!

Now, one last question. Please forgive my insatiable desire to get to every details. While both present tense and past tense are acceptable for the sample sentences you used, which of them sounds more natural? Are the ones inside the brackets less natural / common?

EDIT: I didn't see Barbara's post when I replied. Thank you very much Barbara. It's obvious that you also didn't see Jim's post when you replied. I am so glad to also get the confirmation from you. Once again, I can take your answer to the bank! I also want to thank Goodman, N2G and Marius for all your insights you have given me!

Present Perfect / Past Simple

Ant_222 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:25:23 GMT

Good Time of Day!

  Well, I just read the list of members online and found this:

  --
  In the past 3 days, the most popular thread for  everyone  has
  been "Sample of formal letter writing". The post with the most
  views is "Live chat room". The most  replies  _were_  made  to
  "GUESS MY WORD"
  --

  The first two sentences are in a present tense while the  last
  one uses Past Simple. What's the reason?

Thanks in advance,
Anton

a grammar structure with "not until"

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:41:33 GMT

hi there,

i'm working on my english prep-tests and there's a sentence which i'm asked to rewrite

"She had not seen him until last Friday"

i remember there's a structure for rewriting, it starts with NOT UNTIL and then the sentence and as far as i remember there's a change in the subject-verb order as well.

like: "Not until last Friday had she seen him."

i'm not sure whether i've made the right choice. anyone can help?

and another question: so far all the sample sentences i've seen were all in past perfect tense. is it a must for such structure to go with that verb tense? is it possible to use 'not until' at the begining of a sentence with other verb tenses?

Third Conditional

Df2006 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:04:56 GMT

I saw the following third conditional sample sentences from an educational webpage:

1. If I had not gone to university in Spain, I would not be bilingual.

2. If you had attended the training seminar, you would be familiar with the new operational procedures.

3. If we had not felt we could trust each other, we would not be partners.

4. If we had ordered the equipment last week, they would be here now.

Please can anyone confirm if these are correct?

I always thought the verb pattern for third conditionals should be:

(if clause) past perfect tense; (main clause) would/could/should + have + past participle

For example:

1. If I had not gone to university in Spain, I would not have been bilingual.

2. If you had attended the training seminar, you would have been familiar with the new operational procedures.

3. If we had not felt we could trust each other, we would not have been partners.

4. If we had ordered the equipment last week, they would have been here now.

Thank you very much.

Re: past tense or future tense.

Marius Hancu — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:56:54 GMT

He was right. Should have stayed just in the past, as this is a past experiement.

The purpose of the exercise is to determine if there is a difference in using pH electrode or pH optical sensors when determining an unknown sample. A 95% confidence interval will be used as determined using values of both the pH electrode and the pH optical. Once the data has been collected a null and alternative hypothesis will be used to determine if the pH values collected are the same.