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I found this in a book:

Suppose we have a collection of blog posts where each document was a post.

Shouldn't it be:

Suppose we have a collection of blog posts where each document is a post.

Or is it correct as it is?

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    Should be "I found this in a book." Either one is correct. There is no sequence of tense rule in English; people use any combination they like that makes sense. By the way, don't try to correct books written by native speakers; they can and do make mistakes, but if you're still learning the language, you can't possibly know enough rules to correct them. Just accept it as another unknown phenomenon; don't assume it's a mistake. Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 18:03
  • @JohnLawler Question corrected. No, I was not trying to correct it, was just wondering if this one was correct as I felt it sounded somehow weird to me. Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 18:05
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    No, it's normal. The subordinate clause is in another universe of discourse, so there isn't any continuity of tense. Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 18:06
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    See, this is the difference between personal preferences and grammar. When there is a choice to make between two synonymous constructions (and there are many many such to make every day), many people create a preference for one, or possibly use the choice to mark a distinction they want to make (but possibly others might not). This is why nobody talks the same, or writes the same -- at least after they've learned the language. It's style, but it's not grammar. Grammar is what you absolutely have to do, what you absolutely can't do, and what choices you have with the other stuff. Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 19:23
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    Some would argue for: Suppose we had a collection of blog posts in which each document were a post.
    – tchrist
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 21:14

1 Answer 1

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"Suppose we have a collection of blog posts where each document is a post."

This is correct. As per my knowledge "have" shows present tense and "was" is past tense....So "is" sounds correct there.

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