SongKe
Why people run away in the street? In the afternoon, I am shopping in the street. All of a sudden, all people run away from me. In a few minutes, there's only one person in the street, that is me. Why all people run away from me? I am confused. What's the reason?
Nov 1, 2014 12:24 PM
Corrections · 5

If you want to describe this scene in present tense (if it were happening now), here's a suggestion.

 

Why has everyone in the street run away? (Present perfect: <em>has run away</em>)

It's now the afternoon, and I am shopping in the street. All of a sudden, everyone runs away from me. In a few minutes, there's only one person left in the street, which is me. Why have all the people run away from me? I am confused. What's the reason?

 

Be very careful with using <em>all</em> - it's not as simple as it seems, and many learners make mistakes with it. As natives, we normally use <em>everyone</em> or <em>everybody</em>.

November 1, 2014

This sounds like you're telling a story, so you need to use the past tense. Try this:

 

In the afternoon [if it was today say "This afternoon"], I was shopping in the street. All of a sudden, everyone ran away from me. In a few minutes there was only one person left in the street: Me! Why did everybody run away from me? I'm confused. What was the reason?


[You might instead say "I WAS confused". Depends if you were confused at the time, or are confused now that you're telling the story]

November 1, 2014
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November 1, 2014
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