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echo: english_tutor
to: ALEXANDER KORYAGIN
from: Mike Powell
date: 2019-04-12 20:27:00
subject: The alchemist again

> "This was my Personal Legend, not yours," the alchemist
answered. "But I
> wanted to show you that it was possible."
> ----- The end of the citation -----

>Could the alchemist say, "But I wanted to show you that it IS
possible." After
>all he spoke of universal truth, at least he thought so. But may be English
>Grammar demands the Past Tense anyway (was possible)?

I personally would have used IS, but maybe the author used WAS because they
used it in the first part of the quote.

I was always taught to use the active tense, when possible, unless I am
speaking of something that happened in the past.

Mike

---
 þ SLMR 2.1a þ A preposition is what you don't end a sentence with. Um.
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