"This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist answered. "But I wanted to show you that it was possible."
----- The end of the citation -----
Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that it IS possible." After
all he spoke of universal truth, at least he thought so. But may be English >Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway (was possible)?
"This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist
answered. "But I wanted to show you that it was possible."
Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that
it IS possible." After all he spoke of universal truth,
at least he thought so.
But may be|I'd say "maybe", or "it may be that"
English Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway
I personally would have used IS, but maybe the author used
WAS because they used it in the first part of the quote.
I was always taught to use the active tense, when possible,
unless I am speaking of something that happened in the past.
"This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist
answered. "But I wanted to show you that it was possible."
Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that it IS
possible." After all he spoke of universal truth, at least he
thought so.
Yes, yes, and yes.... :-)
But may be|I'd say "maybe", or "it may be that"
English Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway
English grammar allows... but does not necessarily require... tense changes in reported speech, where the original wording may not be
cited as it was said. I'd suggest looking up "reported speech"
vs. "direct speech". :-)
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