Doubts in Tenses

[Roselin]

At 4 p.m. my neighbour rang up and SAID,' Is Dheeraj there with you?' Dheeraj, her son SPENDS most of his time in my garden playing with my children, so whenever she IS not able to find him she RINGS me up to ask me where he IS.

' I am afraid, I HAVE not SEEN him today,' I SAID. 'But my children WENT to the beach this morning and HAVE not COME back yet. Perhaps he WENT with them.'


--------below is another attempt-----

At 4 p.m. my neighbour rang up and SAID,' Is Dheeraj there with you?' Dheeraj, her son SPENDS most of his time in my garden playing with my children, so whenever she WAS not able to find him she RANG me up to ask me where he WAS.

' I am afraid, I HAVE not SEEN him today,' I SAID. 'But my children WENT to the beach this morning and HAVE not COME back yet. Perhaps he WENT with them.'

***Now I want to know where is the mistake, if there is any then what is the reason behind it*****

 

[curates-egg]

=Not a Teacher=

At 4 p.m. my neighbour rang up and SAID,' Is Dheeraj there with you?' Dheeraj, her son SPENDS most of his time in my garden playing with my children, so whenever she IS not able to find him she RINGS me up to ask me where he IS.

' I am afraid, I HAVE not SEEN him today,' I SAID. 'But my children WENT to the beach this morning and HAVE not COME back yet. Perhaps he WENT with them.'

All these tenses are possible.

At 4 p.m. my neighbour rang up and SAID,' Is Dheeraj there with you?' Dheeraj, her son SPENDS most of his time in my garden playing with my children, so whenever she WAS not able to find him she RANG me up to ask me where he WAS.

As you have used the present tense form "spends", the underlined past tense forms are not natural. In all cases, you are talking about what generally happens.

Alternatively, change "spends" to "spent", and you will be consistently talking about regular past happenings.

 

[Roselin]

Thanks for giving the reason!

What do you have to say about this one?

'What ARE you DOING next weekend?'' It depends on the weather. If it is fine we WILL GO somewhere by car,if it is wet, we WILL probably STAY at home.'
' When WILL Jack ARRIVE?' ' Some t ime this evening.'.'And how WILL he COME here?'.' I don't know yet, I suppose he WILL COME by car.'

-------another one is this----------

'What ARE you DOING next weekend?'' It depends on the weather. If it is fine we SHALL GO somewhere by car,if it is wet, we SHALL probably STAY at home.'
' When IS Jack ARRIVING?' ' Some t ime this evening.'.'And how IS he COMING here?'.' I don't know yet, I suppose he IS COMINGa by car.'

 

[JTRiff]

not teacher

All correct, except for the quotation marks.

'What ARE you DOING next weekend?''
"It depends on the weather. If it is fine we WILL GO somewhere by car,if it is wet, we WILL probably STAY at home."
"When WILL Jack ARRIVE?"
"Sometime this evening."
"And how WILL he COME here?"
"I don't know yet, I suppose he WILL COME by car."

 

[Roselin]

not teacher

All correct, except for the quotation marks.

'What ARE you DOING next weekend?''
"It depends on the weather. If it is fine we WILL GO somewhere by car,if it is wet, we WILL probably STAY at home."
"When WILL Jack ARRIVE?"
"Sometime this evening."
"And how WILL he COME here?"
"I don't know yet, I suppose he WILL COME by car."

JTRiff, I didn't get you. I wrote the dialogues in two ways. Which one is correct the first one or the second one ? :-(

 

[JTRiff]

"Are you confused about dialogue?" (said JTRiff.)
"Yes I am." (said Roselin.)
"Well it's easy. We each get a new line every time we speak, and we do it inside these nice quotation marks."
"Like this?"
"Yes, that's right, the periods and question marks go inside the quotation marks."
"I've got it."
"Good. Have some pie.":-D

 

[Roselin]

"Are you confused about dialogue?" (said JTRiff.)
"Yes I am." (said Roselin.)
"Well it's easy. We each get a new line every time we speak, and we do it inside these nice quotation marks."
"Like this?"
"Yes, that's right, the periods and question marks go inside the quotation marks."
"I've got it."
"Good. Have some pie.":-D

hmmm..you mean to say that there are no mistakes as far as the framing of the sentences are concerned. I mean the use of verbs and all. The only mistake I made was that I didn't use the quotation marks properly.

Thanks for explaining that but I still want to know about the future tense and present continous tense." What will you do NEXT WEEKEND? / What are you doing NEXT WEEKEND?". Both tell us about the future tense but as far as NEXT WEEKEND is concerned, don't you think WHAT ARE YOU DOING will be more appropriate?

Like we say " what are you doing tomorrow?". We harldy say " what will you do tomorrow?"

using present countinous tense for future tell us about our planning. If somebody asks what are you doing tomorrow means he is asking what my plans are for tomorrow and by asking what will i do tomorrow means what i will do in general.

 

[JTRiff]

I think you have it right. There are many phrases that are technically correct, but which people seldom say in conversation.
"What will you do tommorow/next weekend?" is perfectly acceptable,
in this case.

 

[curates-egg]

Thanks for explaining that but I still want to know about the future tense and present continous tense

Many course books and grammars manage to give the impression that, in any particular situation, one way of talking about future situations is more 'correct' than all the others. In reality, most ways are possible in most situations.

So, both your dialogues (post No.3) are possible, though most speakers of British English now use "will", or "'ll" in preference to "shall", even when there is a first person subject.

Most grammarians today do not speak of a "future tense" in English. Constructions with "will" are considered simply as one way of talking about the future.