All About English Creative Writing

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

Hi TAS


Thank you for your help.

1)I recall that he _____[fell / had fallen]______ into the drain.
2) I recalled that he _____ [fell / had fallen]______ into the drain.
Do we use the Past Perfect Tense had fallen in both cases?

3)Much to Mrs Ong's annoyance, her son ________ broken another antique vase.
Could the answer be has or had depending on the time of happening?

Best wishes

Hi tianzhu,

ctct61t has given accurate answers for the all of the questions

We could give the explanations behind why the answers are as such.

Basically in order to understand the use of present tense (eg: fall), present participle (eg: has fallen), past tense (eg: fell) and past participle (eg: had fallen), you can use a timeline.

For the timeline, we will start with the event that happened the most recently.

Timeline:

--1) Present tense (happens presently) --- 2) Present Participle (happened in recent past) ---- 3) Past tense (happened in the past) ---4) Past Participle (happened further back in the past)

So if there are 2 actions in the sentence like the questions you pose, you should always take the timeline into consideration:

1) I recall that he _____ into the drain

(The answer should be fall and not fallen because 'had fallen' is much further in the past then 'fall' and since 'recall' is in the present tense, the action that happened before that must have occurred rather recently)

2) I recalled that he _______ into the drain

(The answer should be had fallen because 'recalled' is in the past tense. The action of falling would definitely happen before the act of recalling. What comes after 'past tense' on the timeline is the 'past participle, hence the answer is 'had fallen)

3) Much to Mrs Ong's annoyance, her son __________ broken another antique vase

(For this question, there is no time frame given and there is only one action in the sentence so both 'has' and 'had' can be accepted)

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

The Alternative Story:

[quote=\"tianzhu\"]Hi TAS


How about this question?

We _________ that it was unnecessary for them to react so violently.

1) felt
2) feel
3) have felt
4) had felt

Could the answer be felt or feel as well?

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

The answer should be felt. This is because the action of it being unnecessary took place in the past. However, I understand why you think 'feel' can also be the answer. The person can be talking in the present tense about a past action and say 'He feels that it was unnecessary...'

However, if there are both options 'feel' and 'felt' provided, then 'felt' is a better answer or rather a safer and more clearcut answer.

TAS

Hi

Could this question be considered flawed as there are two possible answers?

Best wishes[/quote]Hi tianzhu,

Yes it can be considered as such however in the event that such a question appears, your child can choose the 'safer' answer

TAS

[tianzhu]

The Alternative Story:

1) I recall that he _____ into the drain

(The answer should be fall and not fallen because 'had fallen' is much further in the past then 'fall' and since 'recall' is in the present tense, the action that happened before that must have occurred rather recently)

Hi TAS

Thank you for your reply.

You’ve given the answer fall for Q1.

Besides fall, could fell and had fallen be considered based on the below scenario?

The action fall has taken place first before any recollection.
Let’s say the fall took place five months ago. The person is expressing his thoughts now.
The main verb recall is now in present tense.
Could we now say I recall he had fallen into the drain? ----- The time is not specified.
If the time is given ---- I recall he fell into the drain five months ago.

I apologise for burdening you with more questions. Please help to clarify if you can.

Best wishes

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

The Alternative Story:

1) I recall that he _____ into the drain

(The answer should be fall and not fallen because 'had fallen' is much further in the past then 'fall' and since 'recall' is in the present tense, the action that happened before that must have occurred rather recently)

Hi TAS

Thank you for your reply.

You’ve given the answer fall for Q1.

Besides fall, could fell and had fallen be considered based on the below scenario?

The action fall has taken place first before any recollection.
Let’s say the fall took place five months ago. The person is expressing his thoughts now.
The main verb recall is now in present tense.
Could we now say I recall he had fallen into the drain? ----- The time is not specified.
If the time is given ---- I recall he fell into the drain five months ago.

I apologise for burdening you with more questions. Please help to clarify if you can.

Best wishes

Hi tianzhu,

No problem about asking the questions, we will try our best to help.

For the answer 'fall', so sorry, we made a typo error, what we meant to say is the answer should be 'fell'

You mentioned that if the event took place quite a while back, it can be 'had fallen'. Since there is no time specified, that is true. However, it is more likely that the answer is 'fell' as you are recalling it now. So the event should not have taken place too long ago.

However, this question has the possibility of 2 answers, so it is not a very good one as the 2 distractors (options) are possible.

TAS

[tianzhu]

The Alternative Story:

No problem about asking the questions, we will try our best to help.

Hi TAS

I can never thank you enough.But I'll try! Thank you so much!

Best wishes

[Herbie]

Hi TAS,


Are you able to provide info on some of the common grammar mistakes?

Tx

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

The Alternative Story:

No problem about asking the questions, we will try our best to help.

Hi TAS

I can never thank you enough.But I'll try! Thank you so much!

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

You are welcome, we really like your questions anyway, very thought-provoking!

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS,


Are you able to provide info on some of the common grammar mistakes?

Tx

Hi Herbie,

Sure. These are some of the common grammar mistakes we have come across:

Practise vs Practice

Many students confuse the two.

Practise is a verb. How do you remember that? PractiSe- the 'S' reminds you of sweat, so you need to 'sweat' quite a bit when you practiSe so practise is an action, it is a verb. This is how it is used:

- I practised my swimming strokes the whole morning.

Practice is a noun. How do you remember that? PractiCe- the 'C' can stand for 'Class' and a class is an object, a noun. So practiCe is a noun. This is how it is used:

- I am going for swimming practice.

Advice/Advise is another example, 'advice' is a noun and 'advise' is a verb.

Anyone else wants to contribute other such confusing pairings?

TAS

[buds]

Fantastic fun applications there TAS!

I dunno if this is so much of grammar
but here are 2 more pairings that i
learnt from watching VCDs with my
girls..

1. Principal / Principle

The principal is your friend hence it is
spelt with the ending \"pal\".

2. Desert / Desserts

Desserts comes with two ss-es
cos we like them so much!

[shchia]

Hi TAS


My son is in P2 and has issues with his composition. He can relate a story based on the 4 pictures given to him but when he needs to write it down, the content is totally different from what he has related previously.

Any advice?

Regards
SH