On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:02:47 +0100 Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org> wrote: > Quoting Gintautas Miliauskas (gintas@akl.lt): > > Hello, > > > > >> These options will be passed after the touchpad reset if you chose that > > >> option. > > >> <>>chose => choose > > > > > > "chose" is correct, it is the past tense of "choose". And only after > > > choosing it (hence past tense) the options will be passed. 'chose' is correct, but a comma is probably missing too. "These options will be passed after the touchpad reset, if you chose that option." > > I don't think English rules allow such use of past and future tenses > > in the same sentence. It could be "if you choose, options will be "If you choose to enable the option foo, these options will be passed after the touchpad reset." That's fairly ugly because the sentence starts with what you will be doing later and then relates it to what you are doing now (and would have to be offered as a choice at the earlier stage). Better, generally, to start with what you are doing now and relate that to what you will select in the future or have selected in the past. English does allow many permutations of past and future tenses in the same sentence, it has always been that way and will continue to be. (present, past and future all in one - whether the statement itself is true or false or only true in parts, isn't the point of the example). > Well, the choice of "chose" is a correcton by Justin B. Rye, who is > very picky about English grammar, so I tend to have full confidence in > that choice. > > (indeed, he did choose "chose" when correcting my initial proposal > which was the horrible "choosed".....which explains why I'm sure he's > correct...) I would agree. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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