may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mornin

[tufguy]

may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mornin

It is already 7 in the evening. I am not going to the post office now it may have been closed by now.

Please check my sentences.


Do we say "5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the morning"? Is this the correct structure?

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

It is already 7 in the evening. I am not going to the post office now it [STRIKE]may have been[/STRIKE] might be closed by now.

Please check my sentences.

Do we say "5 in the evening", [STRIKE]or[/STRIKE] "8 [STRIKE]in the[/STRIKE] at night" [STRIKE]or[/STRIKE] and "5 in the morning"? Is this the correct structure?

See above. It's more natural to say "7pm", "5am" etc but if you want to use the word for the part of the day, use "in the morning/in the afternoon/at night".

 

[tufguy]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

See above. It's more natural to say "7pm", "5am" etc but if you want to use the word for the part of the day, use "in the morning/in the afternoon/at night".

Why not "may have been"?

 

[5jj]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

error

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

A shop or similar is either open or closed. If you're talking about possibility, it's just "might be open" or "might be closed". You put your text in the present so those need to be in the present too. If you had been talking about last night, you could have said "It was 7pm. I decided not to go to the post office because it might have been closed".

 

[5jj]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

A shop or similar is either open or closed. If you're talking about possibility, it's just "might be open" or "might be closed". You put your text in the present so those need to be in the present too. If you had been talking about last night, you could have said "It was 7pm. I decided not to go to the post office because it might have been closed".

I don't entirely agree.

If you are talking about the possibility of a present situation, you can say I'm not going. It may/might be closed.
If you are talking about the possibility of the present consequence of a past situation, you can say I'm not going. It may/might have closed.

If you are talking about last night, you can say:
1. I didn't go. It might have been closed.
2. I decided not to go. It might be closed/have closed.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

If you're not using a.m. or p.m., then it's common to write it 7:00 to show right away you're talking about a time of day.

So I would either write 7:00 or 7 p.m.

 

[tufguy]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

I don't entirely agree.

If you are talking about the possibility of a present situation, you can say I'm not going. It may/might be closed.
If you are talking about the possibility of the present consequence of a past situation, you can say I'm not going. It may/might have closed.

If you are talking about last night, you can say:
1. I didn't go. It might have been closed.
2. I decided not to go. It might be closed/have closed.

Is it correct to say "I am not going because it may or might have been closed by now"? Or is it safer to stick to present if I am talking about a present situation?

I am confused.

 

[tufguy]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

A shop or similar is either open or closed. If you're talking about possibility, it's just "might be open" or "might be closed". You put your text in the present so those need to be in the present too. If you had been talking about last night, you could have said "It was 7pm. I decided not to go to the post office because it might have been closed".

Okay I need to stick to present if I am talking about the present situation.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: may have been closed by now.5 in the evening" or "8 in the night" or "5 in the mo

If you said "I'm not going to the post office now because it might have been closed", I would assume you meant "... it might have been closed down" (meaning "permanently closed").

Consider the difference between these two:

Sarah: I'm just going to go and pick up some bread at that bakery on 24th Street.
Helen: You can't. It's closed. Did you forget that it closes at 5pm?
Sarah: Damn! Yes, I forgot that. I'll have to go to the supermarket instead.

Sarah: I'm just going to go and pick up some bread at that bakery on 24th Street.
Helen: You can't. It's been closed.
Sarah: What?
Helen: Yup! They found rats in the storeroom so the health department closed it [down] about three weeks ago.