English Noun: States are properties of times, whereas events and processes...

[Guzhao67]

Dear professor: I have a question about English Nouns. in the following sentence: "States are properties of times, whereas events and processes occur at times"; what's the meaning of plural forms here? (especially the plural form "times"); could you paraphrase the sentence with some expression using single form?
thank you

[Mister Micawber]

This looks more like a question of philosophy than of grammar, Guzhao, and I don't know what the fellow is talking about. Please post more context.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Expatcat]

I am not a professor, but here is my take on it:

The state (condition) of happiness does not last forever. One can be happy at one time and unhappy at another time. So the state of happiness is attributed to (a property of) a specific period of time. The party (event) took place (occurred) at 9:00 and the clean-up afterward (process) began (occurred) at 10:00.

A state (condition) is a property of a time, wheras an event or a process occurs at a time.

"times" means more than one different time.

Hope that helps.

[Kitosdad]

:)
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