 Thu Jun 28, 2007 13:12 pm Why past tense? (the server return an error saying he was not in the Lotus... |
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| Attila wrote: | Hi All,
Is that the proper use of the tense in the below sentence?
When trying to connect Kevin to Lotus, the server return an error saying he was not in the Lotus Directory
As for me I'd have written he is not |
There are two mistakes in that sentence. It should say:
When I (or we) tried to connect Kevin to Lotus, the server returned an error saying he was not in the Lotus Directory.
Notice that "the server return" has no verb tense at all. Present tense would be "the server returns", and past tense would be "the server returned". The person who wrote the sentence was thinking in the past tense, but forgot to write the suffix on "return". When the sentence is written correctly, "he was not" is in the past tense because the main verb in the clause above it ("returned") is in the past tense. Usually in English, when the verb in the main clause is in the past tense, so are the verbs in the other clauses. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4337
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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