{"id":74361,"date":"2020-04-29T06:36:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T06:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=74361"},"modified":"2020-04-29T06:36:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T06:36:11","slug":"tenses-in-subordinate-clauses-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/tenses-in-subordinate-clauses-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenses In Subordinate Clauses"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>When the principal clause is in the past tense<\/h2>\n<p>When the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/main-clause\/\"><b>principal\u00a0<\/b>(main) clause<\/a> is in the\u00a0<b>past tense<\/b>, the verb in the\u00a0<b>subordinating<\/b>\u00a0clause also should be in the\u00a0<b>past<\/b>\u00a0tense.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He\u00a0<b>said\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) that he\u00a0<b>was\u00a0<\/b>not guilty (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>He\u00a0<b>asked\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) whether he\u00a0<b>might\u00a0<\/b>go home (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>She\u00a0<b>was\u00a0<\/b>so weak (main clause) that she\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>not stand (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><ins id=\"aswift_0_expand\"><ins id=\"aswift_0_anchor\"><\/ins><\/ins><b>Exceptions<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are two exceptions to this rule.<\/p>\n<p>Read the following sentences.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Copernicus\u00a0<b>proved\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) that the earth\u00a0<b>moves\u00a0<\/b>round the sun (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>The preacher\u00a0<b>said\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) that there\u00a0<b>is\u00a0<\/b>only one God (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>The teacher\u00a0<b>said\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) that honesty\u00a0<b>is\u00a0<\/b>always the best policy (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The subordinate clauses in the examples given above indicate a universal truth \u2013 something that is true for all time. When the subordinate clause expresses a universal truth, it may be put in the present tense, even if the principal clause is in the past tense.<\/p>\n<p>Now consider the sentences given below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He\u00a0<b>demanded\u00a0<\/b>a higher price (main clause) than I\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>pay (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>He\u00a0<b>liked\u00a0<\/b>him better (main clause) than he\u00a0<b>likes\u00a0<\/b>you (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The subordinate clauses in the sentences given above come after the comparative conjunction\u00a0<b>than<\/b>. When the subordinate clause comes after\u00a0<b>than<\/b>, it may be put in any tense required by the context.<\/p>\n<h2>When the principal clause is in the present or future tense<\/h2>\n<p>When the verb in the principal clause is in the present or future tense, the verb in the subordinate clause may be in any tense that the context requires.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>maintain\u00a0<\/b>(main clause) that he\u00a0<b>is\u00a0<\/b>honest (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>maintain\u00a0<\/b>that he\u00a0<b>was\u00a0<\/b>honest.<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>maintain\u00a0<\/b>that he\u00a0<b>will be\u00a0<\/b>honest.<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>shall\u00a0<\/b>maintain (main clause) that he<b>\u00a0is\u00a0<\/b>honest (subordinate clause).<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>shall\u00a0<\/b>maintain that he\u00a0<b>was\u00a0<\/b>honest.<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>shall\u00a0<\/b>maintain that he<b>\u00a0will be\u00a0<\/b>honest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the principal clause is in the past tense When the\u00a0principal\u00a0(main) clause is in the\u00a0past tense, the verb in the\u00a0subordinating\u00a0clause also should be in the\u00a0past\u00a0tense. He\u00a0said\u00a0(main clause) that he\u00a0was\u00a0not guilty (subordinate clause). He\u00a0asked\u00a0(main clause)&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[785,344,2825],"class_list":["post-74361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-subordinate-clause","tag-tenses","tag-tenses-in-subordinate-clauses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74362,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74361\/revisions\/74362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}