hepster72
Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Spanish
- Home Country
- Ecuador
- Current Location
- Peru
I've noticed when native speakers tell a story about something that happened in the past, they often switch tenses in their stories. The following lines are taken from the movie "May":
A couple of weeks ago, this old man comes in. He says his dog is dying. He begs us to save it.
We take him in and run some tests and we find that he has a twisted bowel and he needs to be operated on immediately. We shave Seymour's tummy. We cut him open and we take out his intestines about the size of a hot dog.
Everything went smooth. But when we went to sew Seymour back up, we realized we were out of heavy sutures that were supposed to use for large dogs.So the doctor decided that if we tripled up the cat sutures, that should do the trick.
A few days go by, and this old man calls up, histerical, the cat sutures had burst when he was at work. By the time he got home, Seymore was sprawled out on the back porch with his guts spilled on the concrete. The fence was soaked in blood all the way around the yard. It was a mess.
As you can see, at first, simple present is used and then switched to simple past and then back to the simple present. I'm really confused. Why do they use the simple present as opposed to the simple past? Is it to make the story sound like it is happening now or something? If so, are there any specific rules? Why the certain verbs are used in simple past? I'm really confused.
Thank you.
A couple of weeks ago, this old man comes in. He says his dog is dying. He begs us to save it.
We take him in and run some tests and we find that he has a twisted bowel and he needs to be operated on immediately. We shave Seymour's tummy. We cut him open and we take out his intestines about the size of a hot dog.
Everything went smooth. But when we went to sew Seymour back up, we realized we were out of heavy sutures that were supposed to use for large dogs.So the doctor decided that if we tripled up the cat sutures, that should do the trick.
A few days go by, and this old man calls up, histerical, the cat sutures had burst when he was at work. By the time he got home, Seymore was sprawled out on the back porch with his guts spilled on the concrete. The fence was soaked in blood all the way around the yard. It was a mess.
As you can see, at first, simple present is used and then switched to simple past and then back to the simple present. I'm really confused. Why do they use the simple present as opposed to the simple past? Is it to make the story sound like it is happening now or something? If so, are there any specific rules? Why the certain verbs are used in simple past? I'm really confused.
Thank you.
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