Saturday, July 6, 2013

grammaticality - My grandma believed that the Sun "revolves" or "revolved" around the Earth?

We all know that universal statements are always in present tense. For example,




My grandma did not believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun.




Here, though the sentence is in past tense, Earth revolves around the Sun remains in simple present tense.




But in case of a false belief that is contrary to a universal truth, does the above rule apply similarly? For example,




My grandma believed that the Sun revolves around the Earth.




Will this sentence be taken as grammatically correct? Shouldn't it be "My grandma believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth"?

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