English 1b3 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Tense confusion
Has anyone seen the film The Green Mile? Well, one of the inmates in the film says the following:
"Spent our first summer in the mountains.
Made love every night.
And she'd lie there after...bare-breasted in the firelight.
And we would talk sometimes till the sun come up.
That was my best time."
What tense would you use here and why?
Is it safe to say it is shortened from ...till the sun would come up? Why has the writer chosen 'come'?
Cheers
Eng
"Spent our first summer in the mountains.
Made love every night.
And she'd lie there after...bare-breasted in the firelight.
And we would talk sometimes till the sun come up.
That was my best time."
What tense would you use here and why?
Is it safe to say it is shortened from ...till the sun would come up? Why has the writer chosen 'come'?
Cheers
Eng
Top answer
In that passage, 'come' is a regional register variation on past simple 'came'.
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In that passage, 'come' is a regional register variation on past simple 'came'.
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