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 #2 (permalink) Thu Jan 12, 2012 3:43 am Are these sentences natural? Jan 11 |
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Yes, for the most part.
The unit mix won't change much unless they introduced a new product last month. (Or do you mean...The product mix won't change unless they introduced a new product last month.)
If we take those figures into account, then we will have overlaps.
Does any one else want to comment on third sentence? |
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EditingShark
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| #3 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 16:09 pm Are these sentences natural? Jan 11 |
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Thanks ES.
| Quote: |
The unit mix won't change much unless they introduced a new product last month. (Or do you mean...The product mix won't change unless they introduced a new product last month.)
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Here we are talking about a future consequence that is a function of a thing that happened last month. I tend to get confused in such situation. I used the present perfect because I thought the new product would still be in the product mix.
How should I deal with such situations, any rule of thumb? |
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Musicgold
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| #4 (permalink) Fri Jan 13, 2012 19:44 pm Are these sentences natural? Jan 11 |
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| EditingShark wrote: |
| Does any one else want to comment on third sentence? |
My first comment would be to question whether "like" is intended to mean:
i) "similar to" in the sense that it is not literally the fabled holy grail
ii) "similar to" in the sense that there is another (figurative) holy grail of what you do, and this is similar to it
iii) nothing very much, being a semi-meaningless filler. |
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Dozy
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| #5 (permalink) Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:42 am Are these sentences natural? Jan 11 |
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I can't think of any rule. The consequence of a past action can be in the past, in the present, or in the future. You are focusing on the future. Here are few more variations.
If they introduced a new product last month, the product mix will change.
They have introduced a new product, so the product mix will change.
They introduced a new product last month, so the product mix will change next month.
For the sentence that you originally wrote, I would remove the "have" and write it
The unit mix won't change much unless they introduced a new product last month.
Not sure if that helps, but I hope that it does. |
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EditingShark
I'm new here and I like it ;-)
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| #6 (permalink) Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:25 am Are these sentences natural? Jan 11 |
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1. The unit mix won’t change much unless they [X - have] introduced a new product last month.-- It has nothing to do with present or future: since you have used a specific past time marker ('last month'), only the past tense applies.
3. This is the holy grail of what we do here. -- Yes, 'like' is wrong. The metaphor is implicit in the text.
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 Mister Micawber
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