Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ClarissaMach]

Is it right to say that ("today the family were coming")?
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Stormy Weather.

[ad-miral]

I guess no, because today signalizes present tense, and "were coming" is past progressive, so past tense.
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If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

[CP]

If your question is about whether "was" or "were" should be used for "family," the British would say "were," while the Americans would say "was." The British think of collections of people like team, family, company, country as singular nouns that require plural verbs because (I suppose) they are all composed of more than one individual. The Americans think of them (at least grammatically) as units composed of individuals, and as units, they get singular verbs.

If your question is about tense, you could say "The family was / were coming this morning, [but they had to cancel because of illness]," or something like that. That would be equivalent to "was / were going to come." If you are speaking of a future event, you would say, "The family is / are coming [at 11:00 this morning]." That would be equivalent to "is / are going to come."
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb