With the exams now only a week off, I had to study hard
- Thread starter VicNicSor
- Start date
I read "now" as referring to a time in the past. "It was last Monday. With the exams now only a week off, I had to study hard."
The speaker is referring to a time in the past as "now."
Similarly:
"I was supposed to meet her train, and I was late. I had left the house in plenty of time, but traffic had been bad. Now it was after six, and I had to park in the expensive lot next to the station or I'd be even later."
[Cross-posted with srk]
Similarly:
"I was supposed to meet her train, and I was late. I had left the house in plenty of time, but traffic had been bad. Now it was after six, and I had to park in the expensive lot next to the station or I'd be even later."
[Cross-posted with srk]
Thank you, everybody.
Could you tell me, if you were talking about the past, why you didn't say I'd have been even later.
You could make an argument for that, I suppose. To me, "I'd be even later" is consistent with "I had to park in the expensive lot," while "I'd have been even later" would require the earlier phrase to be "I'd had to park..."
I don't know, but to me "I'd have been even later" is consistent with "I had to park in the expensive lot", because they both denote a past time (no matter if it's the simple past or past perfect). It's just "past conditional", while "I'd be even later" is present conditional...
I think the sentence in your original post could have been With the exams then only a week off, I had to study hard.
"Now" is used to give the reader a sense of being there experiencing the writer's feelings.
I read Florentia's "... and I had to park in the expensive lot or I would be even later" in the same spirit. It is how she saw it in the moment.
I'm not answering for her; I'm trying give my own answer as to how I read her sentence and why that choice of tense can make good sense.
"Now" is used to give the reader a sense of being there experiencing the writer's feelings.
I read Florentia's "... and I had to park in the expensive lot or I would be even later" in the same spirit. It is how she saw it in the moment.
I'm not answering for her; I'm trying give my own answer as to how I read her sentence and why that choice of tense can make good sense.