process esssy

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LevyLi

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I use "past tense" to describe the process for making a fried chicken.

In step 1, you thawed a frozen chicken.
In step 2, you breaded the thawed chicken.
In step 3, you fried the breaded chicken.

If someone want to ask the question "under what condition did you thawed the frozen chicken?,"
could he/she use "when the fried chicken was the frozen chicken, under what condition did you thawed it?"

Are the two sentences identical?

I have this confusion, because the sentence "the president was the/a boss" indicate the current president was a boss, and now isn't.
In the example, I describe the former position of the person mentioned now.
I think "when the fried chicken was the frozen chicken" is also allowable to describe the former state of the fried chicken.
 
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LevyLi

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You defrosted the fried chicken in an oven for 5 minutes.
or
"when the fried chicken was the frozen chicken, you defrosted it in an oven for 5 minutes.
 

LevyLi

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It's difficult to know where to begin with that post. I'll try:

If you are describing a process, you use the present simple or imperative::

Step 1: (You) thaw a frozen chicken.
Step 2: (You) bread the thawed chicken.
Step 3: (You) fry the breaded chicken.


We often use 'defrost' rather than 'thaw' in BrE.

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by "under what condition did you thaw[STRIKE]ed[/STRIKE] the frozen chicken?" or "when the fired chicken was the frozen chicken, under what condition did you tha[STRIKE]wed[/STRIKE] it?".
If you defrosted a frozen chicken, then the chicken was clearly frozen when you started to defrost it. That is self-evident.

I use past tense, because the fried chicken is on the table.
 

tzfujimino

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LevyLi

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In that case, the sentences below are grammatically correct.
I cannot for the life of me imagine why anybody would want to tell the cook this.
Tell children.
 

LevyLi

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Was it frozen fried chicken?
Did you defrost it?
No, I want to go backward to describe the freezing step.
I have this idea because we can say "when the president was a boss, he earned much money."
So could I use "when the fried chicken was the frozen chicken" to indicate the "the frozen, but not fried, chicken"?
 

LevyLi

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You can say "When the chicken was (still) frozen, ...".
What is wrong with "when the fried chicken was..."?
Why can I say "when the president was a boss,..." and "when my father was a student,..."?
 

Charlie Bernstein

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process essay


I used the past tense [not a quote] to describe the process for making a fried chicken.

In step 1, I thawed a frozen chicken.
In step 2, I breaded the thawed chicken.
In step 3, I fried the breaded chicken.

If someone wants to ask the question, "How did you thaw the frozen chicken?,"
could he or she say "When the chicken was frozen, how did you thaw it?"

The word did makes the verb it goes with past tense, so thaw is correct.

"Under what conditions?" is the wrong question. It's asking what your working conditions were: What was the kitchen was like, what the weather was like, whether the kitchen full of people, whether the house on fire, and so on.

Those are the conditions you were working under. The aswer won't explain how you fried the chicken.


Are the two sentences identical?

No.


I have this confusion, because the sentence "The president was a boss" indicates the current president was a boss [delete the comma] and now isn't.

You can say "the boss" or "a boss," but "the/a boss" is incorrect.


In the example, I describe the former position of the person mentioned now.
I think "When the fried chicken was the frozen chicken" is also allowable to describe the former state of the fried chicken.

It's makes sense and is grammatical, but it's not natural.
Start all sentences with capital letters, including sentences that are quotes.
 
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Rover_KE

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I see you posted the same thread here.

Please do not post the same question simultaneously to more than one forum. Doing so wastes our valuable time. Instead, post your question to one forum and wait for replies. If you're not satisfied with those replies, you can try another forum, but please indicate in your thread that you've already asked the same question elsewhere (provide a link), and outline why you were not satisfied with the answers you received already.
(teechar)
 

LevyLi

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Tarheel

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Two things, LeviLi. One, it seems that you didn't pay attention to the answers you got at English Forums. Two, is this a real life situation? (How could the boy not have seen his mother prepare the chicken?)
:-(
 
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