Reasons for confusion over tenses in a story
When writing stories in past tense (which is majority of the time) whether it be an essay for class or an unassembled essay for home and in my own time, I often find myself writing some of my sentences in the following way:
"No!" I yelled, ignoring him completely.
I always get corrected with the words after the comma. I have been told it is not written in the right tense...I don't understand how the tense would be wrong?
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2 answers
The tense is not wrong.
Guessing as to why you are being told it is wrong: English grammar is a system of explanation, not a set of rules, and it is incredibly complicated, and even as complicated as it is, still does not adequately describe all forms of common English usage. In this system of explanation, "Yelled" is past tense and "ignoring" is a present participle. One "past", one "present", therefore your critics think it is wrong.
BUT present participles are used to form the past continuous tense. (I told you it was complicated.) "Ignoring" is (in this sentence) in the past continuous tense. So the tenses match.
At least, that is the best analysis I can give. But there are those here who are far more ardent and learned grammar wonks than I, and they may explain it a different way.
But like I said, you are dealing with a system of explanation that often has a very hard time categorizing what are very common English phrases. You are far more likely to learn to use tenses correctly in English by observing and imitating common English usage.
Your sentence is common English usage.
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I would accept the sentence you have written, usually. It depends on the context.
Tenses in English are actually incredibly complex. (I have recently written a simple guide for distinguishing between the past/present/future simple/progressive/perfect/progressive perfect, which, to be perfectly honest, doesn't cover all tenses.)
Usually, I advise students to stick to one tense when writing a story -- past or present tense. However, things are not that simple. For example, in past tense narratives, present tense sequences can be very effective for creating tension and suspense. As well, sometimes future statements are appropriate.
If you are considering non-fiction, the past tense is conventional. However, talking to my wife, who is a professor of Greek history, she often uses the present tense to talk about past events.
I guess that you are not a native English speaker and you are trying to work out how to please an examiner/teacher/etc. All I can suggest is that you look for examples of the types of constructions you use in standard English texts (e.g. Victorian novels which are availble online for free) to show the person who thinks this construction is wrong.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29753. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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