Hi,
Can some one explain how to talk about a Future /Past and Present time from a PAST date ... when we are referring to that past date from today.
lets say I am writing a diary today (2009) talking about incidents around Jul 15 1999. (on , before and after Jul 15 , 1999)
Lets say every sentence has to be thought from Jul 15 1999 timeline and i want to capture those moments in my diary... So what shd be the correct sentence for following scenarios.
1) Today (lets say )I am remembering incidents around July 15, 1999
On Jul 15 1999, I thought I was good in maths -->> ??Correct or wrong
On Jul 15 1999, I thought I am good in maths --->?? Correct or wrong
Which one of the two is correct ?.
2) Today (lets say )I am remembering incidents before July 15, 1999
On Jul 15 1999, I thought I had done a good job
3) Today (lets say )I am remembering incidents after July 15, 1999
On Jul 15 1999, I thought I would do a good job
4) Today (lets say )I am remembering incidents on July 15, 1999
On Jul 15 1999, i painted the house so that my parents would know what i am supposed to do
On Jul 15 1999, i painted the house so that my parents would know what i was supposed to do
On Jul 15 1999, i painted the house so that my parents will know what i am supposed to do
Which one of the above are correct ?.. I am confused...
Tutors, Can you please help and validate if i understood this correctly.
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- GMAT cracker
- JonathanSchneider
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:40 pm
Interesting set of questions!
I'll try to answer them in order:
1) You would want to say: "I thought I was good at math." Basically, you should keep your tenses consistent unless you have a strong reason not to. You could write: "On that day I thought, 'I am good at math.'" But notice that here we have the thought in quotation marks, thus marking it as the particular thought at the time. (You won't see this on the GMAT, but you could easily read a sentence like this in a newspaper or novel, so I write it out here so that you will see the difference.)
2) correct -- the Past Perfect expresses the earlier action
3) correct -- the conditional "would" is used because the speaker does not know what the future will hold
4) You are really making two choices here: 1) "parents would" vs. "parents will"; and 2) "what i am" vs. "what i was."
For 1), you are more likely to say "parents would." This places that action (their knowing) also in the past, though after the painting of the house, and in the conditional - aka it's not certain whether the parents actually DID know. For 2), this depends on what you want to express. You could use either choice.
I'll try to answer them in order:
1) You would want to say: "I thought I was good at math." Basically, you should keep your tenses consistent unless you have a strong reason not to. You could write: "On that day I thought, 'I am good at math.'" But notice that here we have the thought in quotation marks, thus marking it as the particular thought at the time. (You won't see this on the GMAT, but you could easily read a sentence like this in a newspaper or novel, so I write it out here so that you will see the difference.)
2) correct -- the Past Perfect expresses the earlier action
3) correct -- the conditional "would" is used because the speaker does not know what the future will hold
4) You are really making two choices here: 1) "parents would" vs. "parents will"; and 2) "what i am" vs. "what i was."
For 1), you are more likely to say "parents would." This places that action (their knowing) also in the past, though after the painting of the house, and in the conditional - aka it's not certain whether the parents actually DID know. For 2), this depends on what you want to express. You could use either choice.
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