Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have a question regarding the difference between "is based on" and "was based on" in pairs of sentences such as the following:

(Religion) is based on ~~~
(Religion) was based on ~~~

(Movie title) is based on the book ~~~
(Movie title) was based on the book ~~~

To me, both constructions sound fine, but I'm not sure. Does it depend on the context or whether or not you just wish to state a general fact that still holds true? Can they be used interchangeably?

Thanks for any replies and happy holidays to everyone.

[Aine1979]

I was always of the understanding that using "was +simple past verb" indicated that the action began and ended in the past. In that case, (Religion) was based on... would suggest it was based on (whatever) in the past, but that has changed and it is now based on something else. If it's an active religion and still operates on the same premise, I would use "is based on". If it's a now defunct religion, I would use "was based on". Pretty much the same for a movie - presumably it's still based on the same book, so I would use "is".

Not sure if I'm correct, but that's always how I've interpreted it.

[The Cosmic Hum]