"It's time we went home?" or "It's time we should go home?"

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by Soup

Argue your case, please.

How does one pack so much Fe inside such a short sentence?

[venkatasu]

Originally Posted by riverkid

How does one pack so much Fe inside such a short sentence?

"How does one pack so much Fe inside such a short sentence?"

I don't understand -kindly explain.

Dear Soup,
So far the discussion has been lively. BUt in your post you mentioned a website which doesn't throw much light on the point of discussion. I also visited answers.com, yahoo, bbc etc.

It seems that "It's time we went home" means "I want to go home". "We should go home" indicates a decision taken at that point of time meaning "we should go home".

[Soup]

Originally Posted by venkatasu

... our post you mentioned a website which doesn't throw much light on the point of discussion.

Let's take a look. Could you provide the link? (You forgot to mention which one.) Oh, and could you tell us where it "doesn't throw much light" as well as which "point of discussion" you are referencing it to? (You forgot to mention these as well).

[beascarpetta]

"How does one pack so much Fe (= FATAL ERROR ) inside such a short sentence?"

[Soup]

Originally Posted by beascarpetta

"How does one pack so much Fe (= FATAL ERROR ) inside such a short sentence?"

Actually, Fe is the atomic symbol for iron.

[beascarpetta]

Originally Posted by Soup

Actually, Fe is the atomic symbol for iron.

This is what first crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as not sophisticated enough.
I confess I didn't pay close attention to the particular sentence riverkid's comment was aimed at, but felt rather uncomfortable with the general tone of voice and thus decided that FE was to be interpreted as chat acronym.

[venkatasu]

Originally Posted by beascarpetta

This is what first crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as not sophisticated enough.
I confess I didn't pay close attention to the particular sentence riverkid's comment was aimed at, but felt rather uncomfortable with the general tone of voice and thus decided that FE was to be interpreted as chat acronym.

LET US ASSUME THAT IT IS FATAL ERROR OR IRON OR ???????. I NEED THE EXACT MEANING OR WHAT riverkid MEANS.

The discussion leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. The casualty is the correct usage of "It's time we went".

The thread starter's has mentioned that the correct answer is "It's time we went". He wanted clarification regarding the correct usage of "went" and also whether "should go" be used instead of "went".

rj1948 says, "it's time we/i went home" - present tense meaning "we/i want to go home".

Hotmetal agrees withhim and says that "it's time i went home" is in response to an irritation.

Many have said, "It's time i went home" = I should go home

Soup has suggested a link and my search of the link says, "It's time i went home" means "I should go home".

My searches in bbc learning english, yahoo.com, answers.com gives the following results.

yahoo.com - "It's time we went home" is an idiom meaning "i want to go home".

bbc - It's present tense meaning i want to go home

answers.com - same as above

My teacher used to say that no words or two sentences convey the same meaning. You should go home and it's time we went home are different in meaning slightly.

Please confine your discussion to these sentences and explain the difference.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by beascarpetta

This is what first crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as not sophisticated enough.

I confess I didn't pay close attention to the particular sentence riverkid's comment was aimed at, but felt rather uncomfortable with the general tone of voice and thus decided that FE was to be interpreted as chat acronym.

I'm not sure what it means either, to tell you the truth, which is why I made light of the situation (Fe = iron ). The tone of his messages can be rather discomforting at times--for all we know, "F" could stand for an expletive. (It is beyond me that he is allowed to troll in the way that he does.) You could always do what most of us do, put him on your ignore list so you don't have to deal with his behavior.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by venkatasu

My searches in bbc learning english, yahoo.com, answers.com gives the following results.

yahoo.com - "It's time we went home" is an idiom meaning "i want to go home".

bbc - It's present tense meaning i want to go home

answers.com - same as above

Is this your interpretation of what the authors believe or what they actually said? Could you provide the context, please.

Originally Posted by venkatasu

My teacher used to say that no words or two sentences convey the same meaning. You should go home and it's time we went home are different in meaning slightly.

What is your opinion?

[venkatasu]

Originally Posted by Soup

Is this your interpretation of what the authors believe or what they actually said? Could you provide the context, please.

What is your opinion?

Dear Soup,

As desired by you i am giving you the contexts .

venkatasu
******************
context 1
We have the example - "It's high time we went", but you could also say:

- It's time we went, or
- It's about time we went

and you can use a continuous form as well:

- It's time we were going
- It's about time we were going, and
- It's high time we were going

The past form in these examples is, I think, the subjunctive form of the verb. The subjunctive is often used when we talk about unreal or imagined situations. You can see it clearly in a conditional sentence like this one:

"If I were you, I'd change my job"

Normally you wouldn't expect to see the form "were" following the pronoun "I". You expect "I" to be followed by "was". But that is only true if the verb form is the past simple. However "I were" as in "If I were you" is the correct form of the past subjunctive which is used here because obviously I am not you and I can't be you - so it's an imagined or unreal situation - "If I were you." And that's the same form that's being used in the expressions after the word 'time'

However, to be honest, I wouldn't worry about trying to remember this or trying to work out if a sentence is subjunctive or not.

You can remember the time expressions I mentioned above as fixed expressions and they all have more or less the same meaning. They are quite formal in their use and are stating that it's time that something happened. A parent might say to a child, for example - "it's time you went to bed!" Which means "I want you to go to bed".

In the party situation you could say, as I mentioned above, "let's go!" - but you could also say - "It's time we went." You can imagine the person who said that might be looking at their watch and worrying perhaps about catching a train.

And if the situation is a little more urgent, we use the expression "It's high time" which means it's very important that this happens now - "It's high time we left - come on or we'll miss the train." Or again a parent might say to an older child - "It's high time you found a job, young man!"


source : bbc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page42.shtml
************************
context 2

It's time you went to bed,please?
I study English.
Above,why do you use WENT?

It's time you go to bed.
It's time you should go to bed.
It's time to go to bed.
Are these all incorrect?

This is an idiom we use in England - I don't know why we use the past tense in English in this construction - we just do!

The only correct ways of saying this are:

"It's time for you to go to bed"
or
"It's time you went to bed"

There is a slight difference in meaning: "It's time for you to go to bed" means "You should go to bed now"; "it's time you went to bed" or "it's high time you went to bed" suggest that you should already have gone to bed some time earlier.

There is no difference in meaning between "it's time you went to bed" and "it's high time you went to bed"; the form with "high" is just a little mopre emphatic. We also say "It's about time you went to bed" with no difference in meaning from "it's time you went to bed"

Other examples

"It's time you finished you work"
"It's high time they banned cars from the town centre"
"It's about time you went home"

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080128061335AAAZZYZ
source: answers.yahoo.com
*********************************

context 3

Test No. incompl/inter-91 "Tenses (2)", question 1

It's time we ..........

(a) go
(b) went
(c) are going
(d) going

Test No. incompl/inter-91 "Tenses (2)", answer 1

It's time we went.

Correct answer: (b) went

Your answer was: incorrect
It's time we go.
_________________________

I don't understand why you use here went instead of go?

Regards,
Simone
This is used here as an example of the Past Subjunctive or Unreal Past and means: It's time that we SHOULD go.


http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic1073.html
source : answers.com