Sunday, May 8, 2016

grammar - Tense in clauses and how tense operates in my head




I have a question I am confused about. Here is the question:




(1)"I want to travel around so that I can write where I will go and what I will do in my blog."



(2)"I want to travel around so that I can write where I went and what I did in my blog."




I used different tenses in these two sentences. Which one is correct?




And how about this one:




(1)"I want to do an internship so that I can write what I'll do through the experience on my resume."



(2)"I want to do an internship so that I can write what I did through the experience on my resume."




Which one is correct?




And this one:




(1)"He is going to write a book next year, and he will give me the book which he will write."



(2)"He is going to write a book next year, and he will give me the book which he wrote."




which one is correct?




When it comes this case (seeing things from the future), how should one use the tense in clauses correctly? If you guys can explain how to use the proper tense in these kinds of sentences, it will be great!



From my point of view, I think those sentences labeled as (1) sound more correct to me, but I am not sure about it.



Below, I explain how I think of English tenses. Could you tell me whether my thought is correct?




I think the tenses of English language are all relative to the present (the moment I speak).
That means things we want to talk about need to be compared with the present in order to know which tense we should use. Despite the fact that past perfect can be relative to the past, it is also relative to the present; if not, it would be just past tense (if our datum mark is the time in the past). I mean that because datum mark is the present (the moment I speak), past perfect can be used as past perfect. It is a little hard to explain my thought, but I believe you guys can get my idea.




Answer



First Question



"...so that I can write where I will go and what I will do in my blog" sounds like you want to write about your future plans.



Using the present simple tense makes sense as your traveling can be considered regular or habitual (at least in your version of the future).



Using the past simple tense would give the impression that at the time you're stating this ("I want to travel around..."), you intend to write about your past trips. The conjunction "so that" seems strange (or some may say wrong) as it implies your ability to write about the past relies on your future traveling.




If you want to be more specific, you could say "I want to travel around so that I will be able to write where I will have gone and what I will have done".



The second question is similar to the first, so I'll skip it.



Third Question




  1. "He is going to write a book next year, and he will give me the book which he will write." This sounds ok.


  2. "He is going to write a book next year, and he will give me the book which he wrote." This also sounds ok, but it has a different meaning from the first one. The reference to "the book which he wrote" implies that this is a different book from the first "book" that appeared in the first part of the statement (which has not come into existence). The use of "and" sounds like you are answering a question asking what "he" will do. I can come up with an artificial context to make this statement somewhat sensible:





A: I heard that he finished writing a book last week and is now looking for a publisher. I had no idea he's taken up writing so seriously.



B: Right? And now he has asked me to help him find a publisher.



A: Have you read the book? Do you know what his plans are?



B: No, and not really. But at least I know he is going to write a book next year, and he will give me the book he wrote.



(Does this work? Kind of?)



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