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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
'tongue-in-cheek': adj. or adv.? | To check vs. to control
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #1 (permalink) Thu Oct 26, 2006 13:55 pm   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Hi, what would you say is the difference between these phases:

Sooner or later we have to make a tough decision.
Sooner or later we will have to make a tough decision.


Thanks a lot.
Torsten
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #2 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:29 am   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Interesting poser.

'Sooner or later we'll have to make a tough decision' is the way I'd say it, if I referred to one particular situation. In the first sentence, the use of the present simple suggests that we normally have to make a tough decision (at some point in our life) -- we aren't necessarily talking about one specific case.

At least, that's how I understand it.
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #3 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:41 am   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Hi

Can I add a word and then ask what I actually did? Smile

Sooner or later we do have to make a tough decision.

Or it just makes no sense?
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Tamara
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Extreme grammar #4 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:52 am   Extreme grammar
 

Tamara wrote:
Can I add a word and then ask what I actually did? Smile

You enjoy living life to the extreme, don't you? Well, a little risk adds spice. Smile

Tamara wrote:
Sooner or later we do have to make a tough decision.

Or it just makes no sense?

It makes perfect sense. You're just using 'do' for emphasis here. Nothing dangerous in it, after all!
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #5 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:07 am   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Cool

Thanks a lot, Conchita.

...I do love life.
Smile
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #6 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 15:23 pm   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Hi,friends
Here I don't want to talk about the tense problem. I wonder if the following sentence sounds the same as "Sooner or later we will have to make a tough decision.", as follows:
We will yet have to make a tough decision. Smile
F.F
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #7 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 21:34 pm   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

FangFang wrote:
Hi,friends
Here I don't want to talk about the tense problem. I wonder if the following sentence sounds the same as "Sooner or later we will have to make a tough decision.", as follows:
We will yet have to make a tough decision. Smile
F.F


Your sentence sounds a bit awkward to me. I'd prefer 'We have yet to make a tough decision'.
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #8 (permalink) Fri Oct 27, 2006 23:11 pm   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Hi FangFang

I've decided to assign numbers to some of the sentences in this thread for easier reference: Cool

1. Sooner or later we will have to make a tough decision.
2. We will yet have to make a tough decision.
3. We have yet to make a tough decision.


Here's my take on things:

Sentences 1 and 2 have the same meaning.
Sentence 3 has a different meaning, but it is a more typical sort of sentence than Sentence 2.

Sentences 1 and 2 both anticipate that there will be a tough decision to make in the future. Sentence 1 is the more typical way to express this idea.

Sentence 3 states that there have been no tough decisions in the past. It does not suggest any anticipation of a tough decision in the future.

Amy
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Sooner or later we will have to make a decision #9 (permalink) Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:48 pm   Sooner or later we will have to make a decision
 

Sooner or later we have to make a tough decision.
Yeah. I agree absolutely.
TomWelling
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