Ethan Lee
Present or present perfect tense in relative clauses in the present perfect tense? Should the verb in a relative clause led by a 'what' be in the same tense as the verb in the main clause? I'd like to say that a movie triggered my curiosity about a country (say, Taiwan). "I have been following with interest what is going on in Taiwan since". Is this correct? Or simple present tense (...what goes on in...) or present perfect tense (...what has been going in...) should be used? What if I connect these two clauses together with 'and' or 'so' ('This movie triggers my curiosity...' and 'Since then I've been following...')? How should I put it in the correct tense? Thank you very much!
May 7, 2019 9:41 AM
Answers · 2
1
Without looking it up my natural English says use the present perfect ... what has been going in. In the second example the tense of "The movie triggers my interest..." should be a past tense and the follow up in the present perfect. I don't think the joining with what or and changes anything. You just apply the tenses separately in the correct way. Rob
May 7, 2019
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