nelson13
Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2012
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Zhuang
- Home Country
- Bangladesh
- Current Location
- Japan
context: I am at university. Several years ago I was at senior secondary school.
To tell my foreign friends, which tense should I use?:
The name of my secondary school is/was SLS.
My studying there is past, so WAS seems correct; but obviously its name has remained unchanged, so IS seems correct.
Could anyone help me please?
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In my college(we use a collegiate system), when we talk to foreigners, they will say 'I AM from America', because the status of being from that place never changes, but how about this:
You are/were from an international school.
The person I am talking to is in my college and she STUDIED in an international school two years ago.
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The following question is also related to the present-past tense, so I hope to include it in this thread.
I know when we refer to a dead writer's work, we can say 'the writer uses/thinks....', which is the present tense, but how about:
The writer wants/wanted to show....
(I am not sure whether the act of WANTING is one single act in the past, which needs a past tense verb; or is an act that can be frozen in his work, which needs a present tense verb.)
Once again please forgive me, this Chinese student, whose mother tongue is free from inflection, for raising questions about tenses so frequently.
To tell my foreign friends, which tense should I use?:
The name of my secondary school is/was SLS.
My studying there is past, so WAS seems correct; but obviously its name has remained unchanged, so IS seems correct.
Could anyone help me please?
========================
In my college(we use a collegiate system), when we talk to foreigners, they will say 'I AM from America', because the status of being from that place never changes, but how about this:
You are/were from an international school.
The person I am talking to is in my college and she STUDIED in an international school two years ago.
===========================
The following question is also related to the present-past tense, so I hope to include it in this thread.
I know when we refer to a dead writer's work, we can say 'the writer uses/thinks....', which is the present tense, but how about:
The writer wants/wanted to show....
(I am not sure whether the act of WANTING is one single act in the past, which needs a past tense verb; or is an act that can be frozen in his work, which needs a present tense verb.)
Once again please forgive me, this Chinese student, whose mother tongue is free from inflection, for raising questions about tenses so frequently.