Past tense

[tufguy]

Hi guys,

Is this sentence correct,
"The people in the ancient time didn't live that long that they would catch cancer".

 

[Rover_KE]

No

'People in ancient times didn't live long enough to get cancer.'

A better title would have been The people in the ancient time.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[tufguy]

But what would be the correct formation for my sentence. Could you please tell and what is the mistake in that?

 

[charliedeut]

But what would be the correct formation for my sentence. Could you please tell and what is the mistake in that?

Please look again at Rover's post. He has indeed given you the corrected versión of your sentence.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, tufguy.:-D
(In addition to charlie's advice)
If you intended to use "so...that..." construction, I don't think it would work in your sentence.

 

[Roman55]

But what would be the correct formation for my sentence. Could you please tell and what is the mistake in that?

I am not a teacher.

One of the things wrong with your sentence is that when you say "didn't live that long…" the "that" usually refers back to a length of time that has already been mentioned.

Otherwise, "The people didn't live that long." means that they didn't live particularly long lives, and in both cases the sentence would probably end there.

 

[SoothingDave]

And you don't "catch" cancer. It isn't contagious.

You "develop" or simply "get" cancer.

 

[Tdol]

Also, some people did die of cancer in ancient times.

 

[5jj]

And some people in ancient times lived to a ripe old age.