Timeline for I received an email saying documents are /were
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 23, 2015 at 21:20 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @iamRR I assume you realise that 'comments' here address the 'answer' they're appended to by default. This answer contains two sentences. Are you going to ask which one is the second again? | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 18:51 | comment | added | iamRR | @EdwinAshworth -- You say that 'second sentence' is incorrect. So which second sentence you ate talking about ? | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 17:18 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @iamRR There are only two sentences in this answer. | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 10:53 | comment | added | iamRR | @EdwinAshworth -- What is 'second sentence' which you are referring ? | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 8:21 | comment | added | Avon | @iamRR At the time of writing the email? Of course not. It would be a lie. | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 2:39 | comment | added | iamRR | @Avon -- Will it be correct to use 'are' if the processing has been done ? | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:35 | comment | added | iamRR | Thanks everyone for your participation. I believe if what is said is still true at the time of reporting, then back shifting is optional. I just wanted to ask if what was said is no longer true then can we use 'are' in the above sentence ? | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:26 | comment | added | Avon | Then I think you misunderstood the question. The past tense was the OP referring to the email. The email used the present tense (quotes in the question would have helped there). | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:25 | comment | added | user124384 | If your sentence is in present, then this isn't an issue. Look, language isn't necessarily logical. It just sounds wrong to shift to present tense when you were talking about something that happened in the past. Whether that thing is still on-going or not is usually implied by context. | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:24 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | This (the second sentence) is incorrect; 'rules' learnt at school are often merely 'rules of thumb' giving the way English works 60 - 98% of the time. | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:20 | comment | added | Avon | I'm confused. If the documents continue to be processed at the time of writing of the email why would it not be in the present tense and why would that not apply to a story or a news article or every piece of writing ever that used the present tense? | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 19:13 | history | answered | user124384 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |