Hi, Ardith Hinton : Mike Powell!
I read your message from 15.04.2019 22:46

 AK>> "This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist
 AK>> answered. "But I wanted to show you that it was possible."

 AK>> Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that it IS
 AK>> possible." After all he spoke of universal truth, at least he
 AK>> thought so.

 AH> Yes, yes, and yes.... :-)


 AK>> But may be
 AH> |I'd say "maybe", or "it may be that"


AK>  English Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway


 AH> English grammar allows... but does not necessarily require... tense
 AH> changes in reported speech, where the original wording may not be
 AH> cited as it was said. I'd suggest looking up "reported speech"
 AH> vs. "direct speech". :-)

Where do you see the reported(indirect) speech? IMHO, if we see quotation
marks it is not the indirect speech:

"This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist answered.
"But I wanted to show you that it was possible."


Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2019

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