Past tense or present tense?
When I wrote about a past event, there are some information that seems more suitable to use present tense such as describing job, appearance ... Which type should I use?
E.g.
"I met a lady at the party last night. She looks charming. She is a nurse."
Is it right for me to use past tense or to use present tense to describe her job and her appearance?
Thanks in advance!
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 4
0
I would go for "looked charming" and "is a nurse" myself. That's because in the short time frame since "last night", it's reasonable to assume that she hasn't quit or been fired, or even she has, she hasn't changed her profession, but there's been plenty of opportunity for her appearance to have got messed up. (Even if it was a rather longer time frame -- days or even weeks -- I would probably still say the same.)
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You use past tense in all cases because you are reporting events as you experienced them, at that time in the past. There's no reason to worry whether or not the information is still true.
"I met a lady at the party last night. She looked charming. She was a nurse."
0
it is right to use present tense to describe her job because this things is permanent... describing her look would be in past continuous"was charming" but her job in present "she is nurse"
0
"I met a lady at the party last night. She was looking charming. She was a nurse.
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