Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Captain Obvious]

What tenses would you say these three sentences are in?

1. He regretted having been idle in his youth.
2. He regretted that he had been idle in his youth.
2. He regretted being idle in his youth.

A big "Heil!" in advance!

[storysinger81]

simple past. The key verb in all three is "regret."

[Kurtz]

How about spelling Nazis? It's grammAr

[some waygug-in]

I regretted not having studied grammar.

But what my grammar did not see, my grammar did not know.

[Seoul'n'Corea]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[storysinger81]

he asked for the tense of the sentence, not of the dependent clause haha.

[The Cosmic Hum]

[edwardcatflap]

All three sentences are acceptable and are essentially saying the same thing. The regret part is in the simple past. Regret as a verb can either take the gerund/ing form or a 'that' clause when expressing regret for a past action, so sentences 1 and 2 are identical in meaning with a different structure. They both refer to a past activity that happened before the speaker had cause to regret it. The last sentence uses the present participle which would normally suggest that the speaker still has this problem. e.g. I regret being an idiot - . However, with the addition of 'in my youth' we can see that the speaker is referring to a past activity and is therefore technically using the wrong structure. However this is common and accepted in everyday speech.

By the way I would only consider discussing such differences with a very advanced adult class so I wonder where all the posters get these sorts of questions from. Surely they're not being given to kids as that would be ridiculous

[T-J]

[T-J]

[T-J]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[storysinger81]

Steps up to the mic, blinking back the tears.

I'd like to thank the academy. It was a tough battle, with a worthy opponent. But in the great war of sarcasm waged daily on these forums, it is good to see when truth is rewarded and tongue-in-cheek humor acknowledged.

[/i]

[The Cosmic Hum]

T-J makes an interesting point about tense.
+1 ...as I know he is having at me for being a grammar knob.

In complex sentences, the argument can be made that the independent clause contains the tense of the sentence, regardless of having many tenses may occur in any dependent clauses that may be attached to it.
+1

However, the same cannot be as easily defended in compound sentences.
It is quite easy to combine any number of tenses in a compound sentence.
But, as I know T-J knows this...once again +1 for being a game player.