check for errors

[thomas615]

teacher, can I say "she has won a scholarship?". Please check for errors. Thank you.

Ling's mother said her daughter has won a scholarship to attend a six month Mandarin program in Shanghai. Her daughter was told by her teacher that she was picked out of over 1,000 students.

 

[billmcd]

teacher, can I say "she has won a scholarship?". Please check for errors. Thank you.

Ling's mother said her daughter has won a scholarship to attend a six month Mandarin program in Shanghai. Her daughter was told by her teacher that she was picked out of over 1,000 students.

Yes, it's OK, but I would use "selected" in place of "picked".

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello.:-D
May I ask a question here?
Would it be better for "six month" to be hyphenated? - "six-month"

 

[Barb_D]

Yes it would be better to say a "six-month" program.

Please don't forget that capital letters play an important role in correct sentences.

 

[keannu]

Not a teacher, but a fellow learner!

I don't think this is grammatically desirable, even though they can perceive its meaning. Present perfect always refers to the present state, so past perfect fits the best as past perfect refers to the past. If you say like this, it's like going back and forth between times in a time machine.

ex)Ling's mother said her daughter [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] had won a scholarship to attend a six month Mandarin program in Shanghai.

 

[tzfujimino]

Not a teacher, but a fellow learner!

I don't think this is grammatically desirable, even though they can perceive its meaning. Present perfect always refers to the present state, so past perfect fits the best as past perfect refers to the past. If you say like this, it's like going back and forth between times in a time machine.

ex)Ling's mother said her daughter [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] had won a scholarship to attend a six month Mandarin program in Shanghai.

Hello.:-D
I know what you mean, but if it (winning the scholarship) has the 'present reality', I think the Present Perfect is possible.

 

[Barb_D]

It is the preferred tense if the study under the scholarship is not completed.

 

[Natalie1991]

As a native speaker, I would not say it that way....

Ling's mother said her daughter won a scholarship to attend a six month....

Please do not correct my grammar. This is how a natve would say it, writing it is different. I think it is okay how you have it now. You can also replace has with had.

 

[Barb_D]

Natalie, I am a native speaker as well. And I would say it using present perfect if the scholarship was recently awarded and/or if she is still away studying under that scholarship.

I am not correcting your grammar, because there is more than one "correct" way to say this, but please don't assert that your version is THE version that would be use.

 

[5jj]

Please do not correct my grammar.

All of us who post here, whether to ask a question or to respond to one, must expect to have anything we write questioned. Those of us who respond should not assume that we are incapable of error.

 

[emsr2d2]

As a native speaker, I would not say it that way....

Ling's mother said her daughter won a scholarship to attend a six month....

Please do not correct my grammar. This is how a natve would say it, writing it is different. I think it is okay how you have it now. You can also replace has with had.

As 5jj said, we are all open to having anything we choose to post questioned and, if necessary, corrected. See above. ;-)

 

[Rover_KE]

@Natalie, please read this extract from the forum's Posting Guidelines:

You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post.

​

Rover​

​

​

 

[keannu]

Okay, I forgot the exceptional cases behind strict grammar rules. I remember learning valuable exceptional rules like these from here, but they were present progressive and present tense, not present perfect, but now I learned one more.

1. The professor said he is still preparing for the lecture. (His preparation is still not finished even now)
2. He was very proud that he is American. (His identity is present tense, everlasting)

 

[birdeen's call]

Okay, I forgot the exceptional cases behind strict grammar rules. I remember learning valuable exceptional rules like these from here, but they were present progressive and present tense, not present perfect, but now I learned one more.

1. The professor said he is still preparing for the lecture. (His preparation is still not finished even now)
2. He was very proud that he is American. (His identity is present tense, everlasting)

Note that this is a contentious issue. There are people who say it's never correct to use tenses this way. They are a minority though, as far as I can tell.

 

[5jj]

Okay, I forgot the exceptional cases behind strict grammar rules. I remember learning valuable exceptional rules like these from here, but they were present progressive and present tense, not present perfect, but now I learned one more.

If 'strict grammar rules' have too many exceptions, then they have no value as rules.

I hear and see far too often 'rules' such as: When reported speech is introduced by a reporting verb in a past tense, all tenses in the original utterance must be backshifted.

That has never been anything but a gross over-simplification. If one is going to attempt to summarise the situation in one
sentence, it needs to be something like:

If a situation noted in direct speech is still current, then the verb tenses in a reported speech version introduced by a reporting verb in a past tense may, but do not have to be, backshifted; if the situation noted is no longer current, then the tenses are backshifted.

Even that does not tell the whole story, but it is rather closer to the truth than the version so often found.

 

[5jj]

Note that this is a contentious issue. There are people who say it's never correct to use tenses this way.

I don't think there is any contention among grammarians.

Somebody is bound to prove me wrong now. :-(

 

[birdeen's call]

I don't think there is any contention among grammarians.

I don't know, but I remember some users here.

 

[Tdol]

Hello.:-D
I know what you mean, but if it (winning the scholarship) has the 'present reality', I think the Present Perfect is possible.

I agree with both your points. ;-)