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Sat 23 Feb, 2008 09:32 am
I've checked with my teacher long ago and he has confirmed that the phrase is wrong.
Is the sentence correct? If it isn't, could you please rephrase it?
Many thanks.
Recent past
I have checked with my teacher today and he has confirmed that the phrase is wrong.
Distant past
I checked with my teacher long ago and he confirmed that the phrase was wrong.
Asked whether he had assured Brown that he will step down, then changed his mind, Blair replied: "I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this. You don't."
If you take your grammar guidance (or any other kind) from Tony Blair you are sad indeed.
Hi JTT
With due respect to you, I think Tony Blair is not an authority on BrE.
So I wonder whether what he said is grammatically correct. I acknowlege the fact native speakers are generally good, but they do not put attention to grammar and English usage by reading books on them, they are bound to make a misake once in a while.
Hey. Tony Blair is a barrister, and not too bad at English.
However, anyone can make grammatical slip-ups in conversation.
(but he's a war criminal)
Yoong Liat wrote:Hi JTT
With due respect to you, I think Tony Blair is not an authority on BrE.
So I wonder whether what he said is grammatically correct. I acknowlege the fact native speakers are generally good, but they do not put attention to grammar and English usage by reading books on them, they are bound to make a misake once in a while.
YL,
You have to get over this mistaken notion that reading those old time usage manuals/prescriptive grammar books has anything to do with actual English rules. Often times they do not.
More on this later.
contrex wrote:If you take your grammar guidance (or any other kind) from Tony Blair you are sad indeed.
[More stamping feet]
Contrex,
Obviously, Tony Blair was not offering grammar guidance. I certainly wouldn't ask him for guidance on who has WMD.
Quote:
Practical English Usage: Michael Swan page 422-3, section 3
3.- PRESENT PERFECT WITH PAST TIME ADVERBS
Grammars usually say that the present perfect tenses cannot be used together with expressions of finished time -we can say I have seen him or I saw him yesterday, but not I have seen him yesterday.
In fact, such structures are unusual but not impossible (though learners should avoid them)
Here are some real examples taken from news broadcasts, newspaper articles, advertisements, letters and conversations.
France has detonated a Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific at 17.02 GMT on Wednesday.
Police have arrested more than 900 suspected drugs traffickers in raids throughout the country on Friday and Saturday.
...a runner who's beaten Linford Christie earlier this year.
A 24-year-old soldier has been killed in a road accident while on patrol last night.
A lot of the drivers will be thinking about the circuit, because we've had some rain earlier today.
The horse's trainer has had a winner here yesterday,
...indicating that the geological activity has taken place a very long lime ago.
Perhaps what has helped us to win eight major awards last year alone...
I have stocked the infirmary cupboard only yesterday.
I am pleased to confirm that Lloyds Bank ... has opened a Home Loan account for you on 19th May 1982
I have been reading through your past posts, JTT, and i see that politically you couldn't get a cigarette paper between us.
contrex wrote:I have been reading through your past posts, JTT, and i see that politically you couldn't get a cigarette paper between us.
Not even if you wanted to fill it with some real good stuff?
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