If a group of deceased persons stand out as a good example in the past, and that their example is definitely worth following now, do I say that they 'were' good examples to us; or do I say that they 'are' good examples to us ?
9004
For example:  "Last week, I found out that NASA stands for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration.'"  or  "Last week, I found out that NASA stood for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration.'"
97316
Should one use has been or was in the following sentence, and why?        For many years the USA has been a British colony.   For many years the USA was a British colony.
6866
In news reports, we often read or hear events introduced with the present perfect, and then the past simple like this:     The film star Jim Cooper has died of cancer. He was 68 and lived in Texas.   What's wrong if we use both first and second sentence in past simple?     The film star Jim Cooper died of cancer. He was 68 and lived in Texas.
37424
Let's assume that John gave me a cat. I can rephrase the fact with:     What John did was to give me a cat   What John did was give me a cat   What John did was, he gave me a cat   But can I say the following phrase?  What John did was gave me a cat
22900
Joe asks me: "Do you often go to the cinema?"  I reply: "No, I have not been to the cinema for a long time"  This is correct.  But can I say:     "I have not gone to the cinema for a long time"
10570
Should I use 'was' or 'were' in this example?     I was always delighted when my brother or one of my sisters was/were asked to do them.
70759
Here's an example:  Should I use it or not?   OR  Should I use it, or not?   Which one is correct?
24658
Did you hear the song?      Is this the correct expression, or should I say the following:       Did you listen to the song?
106019
I came across a line in a movie:     You told me your dad was some fighter. You didn't say he was the most famous fighter to ever live.   This is a line spoken by a girl to a guy, and the guy's father is dead. Shouldn't it be:     You didn't say he was the most famous fighter to have ever lived.   Or     You didn't say he was the most famous fighter who ever lived.   What about     You didn't say he was the most famous fighter who has ever lived.
108584
If I were an MLA, I would have helped people yesterday   If I were an MLA, I would help people tomorrow      If I was an MLA, I would have helped people yesterday   If I was an MLA, I would help people tomorrow   Are they grammatically correct? Someone says If-something-was and    Perfect tense' (would+verb third form) aren't acceptable in condition sentence to use along with one another. They say If we use them with perfect one, then it will be correct. For example: If I had been an MLA, I would have helped people.  If I were/was an MLA, I would help people Are they right that that's incorrect to use so? I'm oblivious to the examples because I haven't influential skills on grammar; I wrote them on my own. Sorry If I made any errors there
44055
I've recently noticed that a few people I know, all native American English speakers in their 50s-70s and originally from the Midwest, use "would have" and related forms when talking about factual events that happened relatively long ago.  Here's a made-up example of what I mean:  Upon seeing George Washington's house, one might say "This is where Washington would have lived." instead of "This is where Washington lived."  Another example: "I would've been born in that hospital." as equivalent to "I was born in that hospital."  This sentence, however, isn't an example: "I would have had lunch with her every day last week." It doesn't work because it's insufficiently far in the past.  As @Cascabel notes, it's better to have real examples than made-up ones. So, I hopped on the phone and asked one of the "would have" users a history question (he's a baseball historian) without mentioning my goal. Sure enough, here are a few non-made-up examples:   "He would've been there from 1941-1963, excluding a brief period he took off for the war." "My father would've taken me to see him for my tenth and eleventh birthdays." "It wouldn't have been uncommon for baseball players to have had second jobs back then - it certainly wasn't like today."   Is this a regionalism? A generationally-related usage? Or is it some other phenomenon I don't know the name of? I've only seen a handful of people do this, so, for all I know, they're the only ones.  Is there a name for this sort of usage? I'm not quite sure what to call it, which has made searching for it somewhat difficult, and it's very possible that I've missed an already existing answer.
120178
One of the former student    One of the former students       Which one is correct, and why? Can any one explain it clearly?
2260
Most of the time, I use good and well interchangeably. However, on many occasions I would find well or good a misfit. Please suggest the proper usage.
37372
For an example is it correct to say:      You may use X or Y or Z or even something else.   And what is proper punctuation for such example in case it is valid.
3776
Is it good English to say "They have just left", when talking about a single person (perhaps someone you don't know the gender of)?  (I am a native English speaker, I'm looking for the view held by lexicographers).
33429
I am writing a paper in mathematics.   Stone theorems have a long history. B [B78] proved the stone theorem for the B model. C and D [CD14] not only prove a stone theorem for the cake process in random environment, but also have a nice overview of existing results.  (here B, C and D are some names, and 'stone theorem' and 'the cake process' also represent something else, but it is not important for the structure)  Question: is it ok to use a past tense in the first sentence which refers to 1978, but use a present tense in the second sentence which describes something that happened relatively recently, in 2014?
6758
Can you explain more?  I do not know when we can use them in the sentence.  Can we use them instead of each other?     They have a beautiful home.   They have a beautiful house.