Viceidol Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
Using past tense to refer to the future
Hello, everyone. I saw a sentence in my grammar book:
It will be a great thing for future generations to know that I laid down my life here (I think it means "die in the battlefield") for the country.
What confuses me is: the main clause uses future tense, but in the "that-clause", "I laid down my life here" is a past tense. Since he is not dead while he speaks, why can it use past tense here?
Although the book says "we can use past tense to refer to something that may happen in the future", I've never seen this kind of grammar before. Could you tell me if that Is ture? Thank you for your help!
It will be a great thing for future generations to know that I laid down my life here (I think it means "die in the battlefield") for the country.
What confuses me is: the main clause uses future tense, but in the "that-clause", "I laid down my life here" is a past tense. Since he is not dead while he speaks, why can it use past tense here?
Although the book says "we can use past tense to refer to something that may happen in the future", I've never seen this kind of grammar before. Could you tell me if that Is ture? Thank you for your help!
Top answer
I read it as a simplification of to know that I will have laid down my life .... laid is not really the past (of the present), but the past of the future. CJ
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I read it as a simplification of to know that I will have laid down my life .... laid is not really the past (of the present), but the past of the future.
CJ
CJ
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