Past Tense

[jack]

As a noun: I am trouble. (OK)
1. What are some other words with exception like this?

Can you explain to me why isn't this correct?
2. I am a troubled maker. (Not OK)

Are these correct:

1. I would found you.
2. I would find you.

What's the difference in meaning between these two and are they correct?

3. I knew it, I would find you.
4. I know it, I would find you.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by jack

As a noun: I am trouble. (OK)
1. What are some other words with exception like this?

I can't think of any at the moment. Let me think about it, OK? :D

Originally Posted by jack

Can you explain to me why this isn'tcorrect?
2. I am a troubled maker. (Not OK)

The reason is that 'troubled maker' isn't a word. The word you're looking for is 'troublemaker', a compound noun. :wink:

I am a troublemaker. (OK)

Originally Posted by jack

Are these correct:
1. I would found you.
2. I would find you.

1. is incorrect; 2. is correct. Note that, 'would' is in the past tense, so 'find' shouldn't be in the past tense. :wink:

Originally Posted by jack

What's the difference in meaning between these two, and are they correct?

3. I knew it, I would find you.
4. I know it, I would find you.

First, we have two sentences joined by a comma--what's known as a comma splice. You'll need to replace the comma with a period or a semi-colon or a colon, like this,

3a. I knew it. I would find you.
3b. I knew it; I would find you.
3c. I knew it: I would find you.

4a. I know it. I would find you.
4b. I know it; I would find you.
4c. I know it: I would find you.

Second, we could get rid of the punctuation by deleting "it" and adding "that", like this,

3. I knew that I would find you.
4. I know that I would find you.

Third, notice the relative clause "that". It tells us a clause is coming. The clause 'that I would find you' functions as the object of the verb 'knew/know'.

Fourth, there's a pattern:

Past that Past: knew that would
Present that Future: know that will

3. I knew that I would find you. (OK)
4. I know that I will find you. (OK)

Lastly, we can omit "that",

3. I knew I would find you. (OK)
4. I know I will find you. (OK)

All the best, :D

[jack]

Interesting. Thank you very much.

1. I knew I would find you.
2. I know I will find you.

I still don't really know what's the difference in meaing between the two.
Is the first one more imaginary and the second one is something that will happen in the future? In the end, it doesn't really matter which one you use right?

Are these right?

3. I never lied about titles.
4. I never lie about titles.

5. They never fail to ask for me to take my bag off.
6. They never failed to ask for me to take my bag off.

What's the difference in meaning between these two?
7. I never kill him.
8. I never killed him.

[Casiopea]

You're welcome. :D

Originally Posted by jack

1. I knew I would find you.
2. I know I will find you.

I still don't really know what's the difference in meaing between the two.
Is the first one more imaginary and the second one is something that will happen in the future? In the end, it doesn't really matter which one you use right?

1. knew refers to the past. (I knew at the time (in the past))
2. know refers to a fact, factual.

Originally Posted by jack

Are these right?

3. I never lied about titles.
4. I never lie about titles.

3. lied refers to the past.
4. lie refers to a fact, factual.

Originally Posted by jack

5. They never fail to ask me to take my bag off.
6. They never failed to ask me to take my bag off.

5. fail is factual.
6. failed is past tense.

Originally Posted by jack

What's the difference in meaning between these two?
7. I never kill him.
8. I never killed him.

7. is incorrect. You need mode or tense:

Mode: I will never kill him/ I could never kill him / I would never kill him
Tense: I never killed him.

8. is correct.

All the best, :D

[jack]

I am still a bit confused about this:

I never lied about titles.

7. is incorrect. You need mode or tense:

This one doesn't have a mode or tense? How come it works?
I never lie about titles.

and this one doesn't work:
I never kill him.

Is this correct?
1. I never intend to kill him. (fact?)
2. I never intended to kill him. (in the past?)

Can you give me some other exmaples where it doesn't work? How do you know when it works and when it doesn't?

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by jack

I am still a bit confused about this:

This one doesn't have a mode or tense? How come it works?
I never lie about titles.

It's possible to 'lie' about one thing more than once, but it's not possible to 'kill' the same person more than once:

'kill' without an object
I never kill. (OK; factual; habitual)

'lie' without an object
I never lie. (OK; factual; habitual)

'kill' with an object
I never kill him. (Not OK; one cannot kill someone habitually)

'lie' with an object
I never lied about things. (OK; one can lie habitually)

'kill' past tense
I never killed (him). (OK; not habitual. It happened once)

[/quote="jack"]
Is this correct?
1. I never intend to kill him. (fact?)
2. I never intended to kill him. (in the past?)[/quote]

1. is correct. 'intend' refer to a future purpose. The future meaning is part of the word's make-up.

2. is correct. 'intended' refers to a past purpose.

Originally Posted by jack

Can you give me some other examples where it doesn't work? How do you know when it works and when it doesn't?

In part, it has to do with the verb itself, its meaning, e.g. I never kill him: 'never' is a frequency adverb, whereas 'kill him', a telic verb, cannot occur in frequency; it happens only once. That is, a person cannot die more than once, but s/he can 'lie' or 'intend' more than once.

All the best, :D

[jack]

Thank you. :)

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by jack

Thank you. :)

You're welcome. :D

Please note, in a video game, "I never kill him" is a meaningful utterance. :wink:

Pat: You need one more hit to win the game.
Sam: Yeah, I know, but no matter how many times I play this game, I (can) never (seem to) kill the one last guy ~ I never kill him.

OR

Sam: Yeah, I know, but I like the last guy, so I (purposely) never kill him.

All the best, :D

[jack]

Are these correct? If not, why? What's the subject and verb?

1. Who made that killed?
2. Who made that kill?

3. Who made that shot?
4. Who made that shoot?

What is 'that' referring to?

[Casiopea]

1. Who made that killed? (Not OK)

('killed' is modified by 'that', a demonstrative pronoun (i.e., this, that, these, those). Those pronouns modify nouns; moreover, since 'killed' functions as the object of the verb 'made' it should be in its nominative form (i.e., a noun) as in example 2.:

2. Who made that kill? (OK)

3. Who made that shot? (OK)

4. Who made that shoot? (Not OK)

(Not OK for the same reasons as 1. 'shoot' is a verb; 'shot' is a noun:

I shoot. (present tense)
I shot. (past tense)
that shot (demonstrative pronoun + noun)

All the best, :D