 is/was? why?
there is a sentence about tenses which I know how to use but do not know why.
A teenager studying in a non-English department asked me a question: in 1921 is/ was the year he was born in, which word verb inflection should be used?
I told him that WAS should be used because the time is past.
here comes a problem which I cannot solve:
when we say we did sth, it is because the action is past; but when we say the year 1921 is/was... , we are stating a fact, which is no action, and this fact is still true, because that guy is still a person born in 1921!!
could anyone solve the problem? |