Manhattan GMAT SC Guide: Problem Set on Verb Tenses

[rahul810]

1. we thought that joe didn't go to the museum with the rest of the class.

2. She had gotten up in the morning and was brushing her teeth when the phone rang

3. The attorney proposed that the session was adjourned until the following day

4. we could start the meeting if sam was here

(answer for the above one "we could start the meeting if sam were here " sam is singular were is plural ???

can some one give detail explanations for the above sentences. I want to know what makes them right or wrong.

[Danielle]

Rahul, it's a bit difficult to tell if these phrases/sentences are correct or not as there isn't much information, but here goes...

1. Correct -- I assume that the point of confusion here is "didn't go". The past tense of go is went, but the negative past tense of go is did not go.

2. Correct -- Again, I assume the confusion is with the verbs. "had gotten up" is appropriate to tell what happened in the past while telling a story, or narrating from the past tense. "Was brushing" is imperfect tense and is the proper way to describe something that happened in the past over an extended period of time.

3. Incorrect -- "was" is incorrect; "be" is correct. I think this is an idiom.

4. Incorrect -- "was" should be "were". Were is correct because it is correct in the subjunctive, which is what this verb tense is, not past tense.

It looks like you may need to review the verb tenses and participles of common irregular verbs like "to be" and "to go", since that seems to be the confusing part that all these sentences have in common. Good luck!

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

Some clarification for 3:

The reason we use "be" in 3 is because the verb "proposed" also requires the subjunctive.

There are two cases in which we use the subjunctive tense.

(1) When we make statements contrary to reality. Your sentence 4 is an example of such a case. In this situation, the one part of the sentence generally uses "could" or "would" and the other part of the sentence uses "were".

e.g. If I were rich, then I would buy a gold bathtub.
I would go to Harvard if I were accepted.

(2) When we use verbs that are requests or demands (e.g. ask, order, mandate...). In this case, we follow the first verb with "that" and the next verb is in infinitive form minus "to".

e.g. I ask that you do your homework. (inf form: "to do")
House rules mandate that we be in bed before 10 p.m. (inf form: "to be")

[.maxime.]

"Order x to be y" is also correct. Can I infer from this that if we leave 'that' from asking or demanding verbs, we can make the same construction?

I mandate x to be y
I ask x to be y
...

Plus, you say that the verb 'propose' requires a subjunctive, but only when 'that' is used, I assume?

The attorney proposed to adjourn the session ...