leave sb wondering

[pavelengland@yahoo.com]

The mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week will leave observers wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen, our correspondent says.

x

The observers are left wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen after the mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week.

x

The observers will be left wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen after the mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week.

Please, what's the difference?

[Jamie (K)]

Ježišmaria, Ty jsi kladl takovou hrozně složitou otázku!

In the first two, it's simply a matter of verb tense and voice, present versus future:

Present tense, passive voice (přítomný čas, trpný rod)
The observers are left wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen after the mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week.

Future tense, passive voice (budoucí čas, trpný rod)
The observers will be left wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen after the mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week.

Future tense, active voice (budoucí čas, činný rod)
The mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week will leave observers wondering just how far Czech political culture has fallen, our correspondent says.

I hope this answers your question, but if you still don't understand it, let me know.

[pavelengland@yahoo.com]

what's up? how do you know I'm Czech? Are you too? If so, could you possibly translate all the sentences into Czech? My question is whether - apart from the matter of tenses and voices - the meaning is different. I mean, my problem is I see the differences in tenses and voices but I cannot translate it into Czech. From your answer I see that The observers will be left wondering ... and The mafia-style pressure tactics of the last week will leave observers wondering ... should be the same in meaning.

[Jamie (K)]