appears/appeared

"Appears" works better for me. The biography is existing, so it continues into the present.

i would say "has appeared"

this says that the dragon appeared in buddha's biography sometime before now - the time is not important.

"winona ryder has appeared in many movies"


(this is "present perfect" tense.)

Disagree.

Re: appears/appeared


Fight! Fight!! lol

I think both work.

"Appears" works because it's in a book and is ongoing...

"Appeared" works, too, because it is past tense in the sense that it's a published book.

I'm sure I'll be debated into the ground by as-yet-non-seen members by this, but that's my take on it.

The character of Moses appeared in the Bible?

No. He appears in the Bible.

Yeah, I tend to go with you on this, McT, but would it really be "wrong" to say "appeared"?

Moses first appeared in the Bible in the Chapter Blah Blah, and then he reappears in Chapter Blah Blah Blah...

In this sentence, the past tense is appropriate because you've specified that the appearance is the first such one, and you've made it clear that you are narrating a sequence of chronological or historical events. Tanguatlay's sentence doesn't specify that the biography of the Buddha is the first appearance of the dragon in Buddhism, and by itself it does not tell us whether it will go on to narrate a sequence of subsequent events; so based on the information we have, the present tense is preferable.

It depends what emphasis you wish to make, and what temporal perspective you wish to emply.

If you were talking about the history of books and films about vampires, you might say that Dracula first appeared in "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, in 1897. The character subsequently appeared in many films, including "Dracula" in 1931, and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in 1992. It is estimated that Dracula has appeared in as many as 650 films.

If you are talking about a literary work such as a book or play or series of them, considered as a whole, you might (e.g.) say that R. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society. Olivaw appears in Asimov's Robot/Foundation Series, most notably in the novels The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation and Earth. Since he also appears in all of the books of the Second Foundation Trilogy, Daneel is the most commonly appearing Asimov character.

The word "dumbo" appears in the dictionary. It will appear in it tomorrow, and appeared in it yesterday. Today however, it appears in it.

I hope that tanguatlay has a firm basic understanding of English grammar lest these nuances, though correct, drive him up the wall

Some nuances are correct.

Not all. Not by a long chalk.

this was one of those posts i made and then went to bed, woke up three hours later, going, "Wait! why did i say that?"

i do agree with the basic advice - it depends on where the emphasis is.

the reason i said "has appeared" was the words "the biography" - i assumed it was supposed to be plural. i've not heard of one official biography of the buddha. (compared with the bible, for example) it was a silly assumption/oversight, and was the thing that woke me up.

at any rate, as the sentence is written, the verbs should agree with one another.

so you could say "it appears" and "it is" - and this would give the impression that those two things are true today. if you pick up the biography of the buddha, you will see a dragon. if you ask a buddhist today which animals protected (sic - so in the past) buddhist law, they will mention the dragon. (but they will be saying that these animals no longer protect buddhist law) - this is maybe the best way to present the sentence.

if you say "it appeared" and "it was" - i think the emphasis is on historical relevance.

Too much unnecesary complication.

If you are advising a learner, you should pitch your answer accordingly.

imho.