My knees went out.

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sadra1400

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Apr 6, 2022
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Tajikistan
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I don't know which tense should I use in this conversation?

A) Can you come with me to the party this weekend?
B) No. My knees went (or goes) out.
 
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I suppose "My knees went out" might mean "I have a knee problem and I can't move around" in some dialect of English, but it isn't standard.

I'd advise you not to use it unless you live in a place where it's commonly used.
 
If you have an existing knee problem that occasionally plays up, you might say "No, my knee's gone". As long as the listener knows that you're referring to a recurrent issue, they'll know that "gone" means "started to hurt again", not "vanished".
 
If you have an existing knee problem that occasionally plays up, you might say "No, my knee's gone". As long as the listener knows that you're referring to a recurrent issue, they'll know that "gone" means "started to hurt again", not "vanished".

went out means hurts or hurted?
 

Does "went out" means mean "hurts"? or hurted? Note that "hurted" does not exist in English.
The presenter of that video is American. Maybe AmE uses the phrase but BrE doesn't, or at least not in relation to knees. The only part of the body BrE might use it with is the back.

All of the following are possible:

I couldn't go to the party because my back went.
I couldn't go to the party because my back went out.
I couldn't go to the party because I put my back out.
I can't come to the party tonight because my back's gone.
I can't come to the party tonight because my back's out.
I can't come to the party tonight because I've put my back out.
 
Which tense should I use in this conversation?

A) Can you come with me to the party this weekend?
B) No. My knees went (or goes) out.
"My knees went out" works in American English.
 

went out means hurts or hurted?
How do you manage to start a sentence with a lower-case letter? Doesn't auto-correct capitalise it?
 
How do you manage to start a sentence with a lower-case letter? Doesn't auto-correct capitalise it?
We see this a lot. Not everyone's browser is set to auto-correct anything and not everyone sets their browser's spell/grammar checker to use the rules of written English!

i can start a sentence with a lower-case letter very easily. auto-correct doesn't do anything to my text. as you can see
 
Auto correct automatically capitalizes the next word after a period (full stop), question mark or exclamation mark. It's very handy.
 
"My knees went out" works in American English.
I agree, and it's common enough in AmE. However, in this context I'd be more likely to say "My knee's out again."

Although personally, it's my back not my knees. :mad:
 
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