Tell the time by him because he always finished work...

[Sajjad Pasha]

ou could tell the time by him because he always finish work at exactly the same time every day

[Alan]

Hi Sajjad Pasha,

You keep posting this comment but I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Kharisma]

[Saneta]

You could tell the time by him because he always ......... work at exactly the same time every day. What does,,by him'' mean in this sentence?

[Alan]

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Hi Saneta,

'By him' suggests 'by watching him' because when you see him, you know what the time is. It's similar in construction to 'telling the time by the sun - when the sun shines on a particular point on a sun dial.

Hope that helps

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Make or Do?

[Ankur_Mind]

"You could tell the time by him because he always finished work at exactly the same time every day."
i did not understand the sentence. can we tell time by someone?

[Mitko]

Hi Alan,

I understand the sense of the sentence I mean, why "by him" and so on, but I still don't catch, why the correct answer is finished - past simple and not present simple. Is the explanation of Yankee right in this case. Can't be both answers correct in that case, if someone mean that this sentence relate to the present?
On the other hand, if we use present simple, then the correct form of the verb might be "finishes" and probably therefore the correct answer here is "finished". I think that's the main reason here and not "could" or something else.
Am I right?

[Guruh]

[Melek]

Hi Mr.Alan.please explain me why 'finished' not 'finishes'.I think it must be 'he always finishes'.it is present simple,isn't it?

[Alan]

Hi,

It is 'finished' because the sentence begins 'you could always tell ...'. If it was: You can always tell. then it could be 'finishes.'

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/hold

[Indiansoil]

You could tell the time by him because he always finished work at exactly the same time every day.

Friend, there is nothing wrong with that sentence. Those, who are wondering why "finished" is used there, need to understand that even though English is very flexible in its constructs so that we can express our thoughts as freely as we want to yet we need to maintain a sound balance, when we string together, between two or more clauses or sentences.

Let's break down the sentence in question here:

[1] You could tell the time by him.
[2] He always finished work at exactly the same time every day.

A close look at the above two sentences can show us that the two expressions tell us something which is related to past.

Well, expressions such as "every day" and "always" are not necessarily any proprietary of the Present Tense or Time. Consider these expressions:

[1] You were always a fool when you were in your school.

[2] You are always welcome here!

[3] I will always love you.

[4] Every day I woke up, I thought of you.

Well, we live and learn!

[Aline20081]

Hi everybody!
I did the test, and I got a nice point (note? mark?)
It's amazing, because, everytime it seems to be easy, but it's not that easy!
I'll end my message here, otherwise, i'll never finish! is that right?
Have a nice day!

[Vijai]

Hi Everybody...

why can't we use 'Finish' instead of 'Finished'. What is wrong in that?
You could tell the time by him because he always finish work at exactly the same time every day.

[Lyubomir]

Hello everyone,
I can't understand why finished is corect.
I this sentance we speak about an action which is repetitive every day.
So that I put FINISH as a rigt answer, but it was wrong. Why ?

[Alan]

Hi,

If you did use the present simple, it would have to be 'finishes' but here it must be 'finished' (past simple) because this is a story about what happened in the past - something he did every day.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Read the Signs...