huizilily
tenses in stories Mother Teresa ,who received a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the poor,dieS in Calcutta ,India-she was 87 years old. I'm confused about"dies".why not say"died"? received-died-was(past tense) Isn't it right? I'd like to know when I describe a story to someone, how should I use "tense"-past or present? Thank you very much!😊 (If you could answer my question in Chinese,I could understand well.sorry,my English is not good) Thank you!
May 14, 2019 11:03 PM
Answers · 8
2
Was this the title of a newspaper article? Titles have strange, special rules that are different from the rest of English.
May 14, 2019
There are many times when we use the present to refer to past events (see the Wikipedia article linked to below). In your example, I’d say it is because Mother Theresa is a historical figure who is important *today*. Her date of death *is* a historical fact that is valid to us in the present — not just an event in the past. In a way, she is immortal. Another example would be the “literary present”, where we talk about a book or movie in the present tense — the book / movie exists *now* and anyone can read it *now* or in the future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present
May 14, 2019
If you want to improve your English, isn't it better to try to understand an answer in English? ;) Can you give more context? You're right that it would normally be 'died', but that depends on the tense and time in the the next part of the quote. The writer may have switched tense to a present tense to tell a part of the story.
May 14, 2019
I agree with Chris -- it sounds like this is the title of an article (or maybe an item in a list), and not part of a normal "story." In normal speech or writing, it would be best to use the past tense here.
May 15, 2019
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!