Grammar question

[euphaire]

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Hello, can someone help me with a grammar question? I'm confused about sentence tense.
Examples:
"I believed that donating to charity is an honorable thing to do."
"She told me that, in terms of dog training, praise is more effective than discipline."
Note how "believed" and "told" are in past tense while "is" is in the present tense. I always get confused when I want to say that someone told me about something that still holds true today/forever (for instance, praise was more effective and still IS). Should I say it like above, or should I revise it to have consistent past tense like below?

"I believed that donating to charity was an honorable thing to do."
"She told me that, in terms of dog training, praise was more effective than discipline."

The reason I'm confused about it is that some phrases sound weird if written in past tense. The examples I gave do not show this well, because they still sound fine when put in past tense. I cannot think of a good example right now, though.

Thank you for your help 🙄

 

[Mr PS09]

I am pretty sure it is the first one. It is one of those things that everyone speaks wrong so you second guess yourself.

 

[MAR89]

Your first two sentences are correct in that they convey the message that you're trying to get across. The reason the present tense works in both of those cases isn't necessarily that whatever "you believed" or "she told you" still holds true, but rather that what "you believed" and what "she told you" were statements of opinion which are and always will be just that, statements of opinion. The same way an idea can be forgotten but never erased, the same holds true here. I think people sometimes go overboard with matching their tenses. English is an incredibly flexible language when it comes to grammar, so chances are if it sounds right, it is!

Were you to write the two phrases the second way, some more scrupulous readers may interpret it as you implying that those statements of opinion have somehow ceased to exist, which would be impossible.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

This is the student doctor forum, not the student english teacher forum. 😛

 

[iamtony]

There are probably rules out there about proper usage if you search enough...
If i were to read one of your two examples with "was", it would sound to me like those two things were believed by you to be true in the past or performed in the past but not anymore.

maybe?

 

[amalgamgrillz]

Hello, can someone help me with a grammar question? I'm confused about sentence tense.
Examples:
"I believed that donating to charity is an honorable thing to do."
"She told me that, in terms of dog training, praise is more effective than discipline."

The first sentence is incorrect, and the second sentence is partially correct:

1) "I believed that donating to charity was an honorable thing to do." ..unless you no longer believe that, the correct tense is past tense.

2) "She told me that, in terms of dog training, "praise is more effective than discipline."" In this case, the advice she gave you should be in quotation marks. It is ok to leave as is, because it was mentioned to you in the present tense.

 

[wkupredental]

The first sentence is incorrect, and the second sentence is partially correct:

1) "I believed that donating to charity was an honorable thing to do." ..unless you no longer believe that, the correct tense is past tense.

2) "She told me that, in terms of dog training, "praise is more effective than discipline."" In this case, the advice she gave you should be in quotation marks. It is ok to leave as is, because it was mentioned to you in the present tense.

You don't need quotation marks in the second sentence because of the word "that." If it was "In terms of dog training, she told me, 'praise is more effective than discipline,'" - then you would need quotes.

At any rate: I think that it depends on the action you're conveying, not necessarily whether or not it's still true. Ie. In sentence 1 - was donating to charity something you did as a result of that belief or is it just a principle you believe? If it's something you did: use was (as in, it was something I believed I should do). If not, use is: it IS something you should do.

In sentence 2: Are you talking about it being something that people should do all the time or was it specific to the situation. Praise was something I needed to use to train my dog. (Then you use was.)

 

[Jackson-Ave-Dental]

"I believed that donating to charity is an honorable thing to do."
- Past and present mixed together?

"I believed that donating to charity was an honorable thing to do."
- Same tenses but implies that everything only held true in the past...

How about using this?...
I've always believed that donating to charity was an honorable thing to do.
It was an honorable thing to you in the past and it still is even to this very day.