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I'm sorry for losing my temper this evening

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar
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WBYeats
 
Reply Fri 19 Jul, 2013 07:53 pm
A without-context sentence found in a grammar book:

-I'm sorry for losing my temper this evening.

In English, though the meaning of a sentence is clear, the tense, I think, should reflect the time shown by the time phrase in the sentence, so

-I'm sorry to miss your party last week

is not acceptable, at least I was told, and it should be

-I'm sorry to have missed your party last week. OR
-I was sorry to miss your party last week. OR
-I was sorry to have missed your party last week.

By the same token, must LOSING be changed to HAVING LOST?

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PUNKEY
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jul, 2013 09:56 am
"losing my temper" is an idiom, so that is not a good example for trying to figure out that sentence.

The basic structure is: I / am / sorry

for (>>>>>>).


WBYeats
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jul, 2013 10:26 am
@PUNKEY,
Thank you, Punkey. But do you agree that

-I'm sorry to miss your party last week.

is ungrammatical?
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jul, 2013 10:40 am
@WBYeats,
It is acceptable to use the present tense when describing one's feelings about an act in the past, present or future, when using a gerund:

I am sorry for losing my temper yesterday.
I am sorry for shouting at my mother last week.
I am proud of winning the competition two weeks ago.
I am happy about being in London at the moment.
I am excited about going to Scotland next week.

WBYeats
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jul, 2013 07:28 pm
Thank you, Contrex~

Is the to-infinitive form OK?:

-I'm sorry to miss your party last week.
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jul, 2013 12:52 am
@WBYeats,
WBYeats wrote:

Thank you, Contrex~

Is the to-infinitive form OK?:

-I'm sorry to miss your party last week.


With the infinitive, the tense should match

I was sorry to miss your party last week
I will be sorry to miss your party next week.
WBYeats
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jul, 2013 01:31 am
Oh I see. Thank you, C.
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jul, 2013 06:35 am
@contrex,
Contrex: It is acceptable to use the present tense when describing one's feelings about an act in the past, present or future, when using a gerund:

but,

Contrex: With the infinitive, the tense should match.

Provide a source, please.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jul, 2013 08:41 am
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
I am excited about going to Scotland next week.


Really?
0 Replies
 
 

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