2.2.1 Past vs. present

Rule: The present tense normally expresses present time reference; the past tense normally expresses past time reference.

Examples of errors:

1. Fat people often became afraid of others because they know they have a bad figure.
2. I was very happy to get to know a new town, and I also think that studying away from home has some advantages, insofar as one can see that matters of course at home became difficult and one is more able to appreciate things one wasn't conscious of before.
3. These outsiders who live as homosexuals in a sort of subculture--which they created for themselves-at weekends, and tried to live like "normal people" during the week, should be integrated in society.
4. When I finished in Bettenhausen I must be in Wilhelmshöhe at 4.
5. I cannot see any hope of abolishing human isolation. This seemed to be sad, but true.
6. The examples showed that it is not possible to give up theoretical learning before going to school to teach.
7. Recent statistics showed that many young people commit suicide.
8. I just remember that he has a moustache on his upper lip.
9. I am born in 1951 in Bad Nonnersheim.
10. Although it is 50 years ago that they married, it seems as if their marriage is only a few years ago.
11. He didn't dare tell Rachel about his failure, because he is afraid that she can't understand him and that she'll end their friendship.
12. After the Second World War they eat a lot because they have nothing to eat the years before.
13. I came to know that the decision which I choose might not have been the right one.
14. It's about a week back that I saw my brother last.

In most cases the choice between the present or past tense would seem to be a simple one--a straightforward application of Rule 2.2.1. Certainly no one would question the time reference when one refers to one's date of birth, for example, and the problem in a sentence like (9) is not whether the verb should be past or present but simply that the past tense is formed differently in German (Ich bin geboren) than in English. In some cases, though, the question of present or past time reference is not so simple, In (6) reference is made to examples given in the course of the same essay; strictly speaking, the citation of the examples occurred previous to the writing of this sentence, so one might think the past tense is justified. Similarly, (7) refers to "recent" statistics, which obviously were collected and published sometime in the past. Nevertheless, the simple present is preferable in both of these sentences, because the focus of interest is not the past event (i.e. when the examples or statistics were produced) but the present state--the fact that now these examples and statistics reveal certain facts. In (7) the present perfect, showing present results of a past event, is also acceptable.

(8) is also problematic. We can assume from the context that just here is a time adverbial (i.e. does not mean 'only'), but as such it is still ambiguous, since it can mean either 'at this very moment' or 'a moment ago':

He's just coming through the door (i.e. at this very, moment)
He just left (i.e. a moment ago)

The first reading of just almost demands a progressive verb, since it expresses an event or activity in progress, and therefore it is not likely to be found in combination with verbs like remember that do not normally take the progressive. This restriction does not apply to sich errinern, of course, since German has no progressive:

Ich erinnere mich gerade, daß er einen Schnurbart hat.

A further source of confusion is the use of occur, whose meaning is similar to that of remember, and which does allow the construction attempted in (8), in sentences like

It just occurs to me that he has a moustache.

In general, though, just meaning 'at this very moment' must be combined with a verb in the progressive.

As an event verb, remember allows the present progressive in an iterative sense, or in the sense of la mental activity in progress:

He's always remembering scenes from his childhood (iterative)
What are you thinking about? (mental activity)
Oh, I'm just remembering something that happened last week (mental activity)

The second usage is relatively rare, however, and is not appropriate in (8), where the focus of interest is not on the remembering per se (the mental activity) but on what is (or has just been) remembered. (The present perfect is acceptable here as well.)

(10) and (14) are cleft sentences in which a particular element has been singled out and brought forward for prominence. In such sentences the tense in the main clause normally corresponds to the tense in the subordinate clause:

They married 50 years ago.
>It is/*was 50 years ago that they married.

I saw my brother last about a week back.
> It *is/was about a week back that I saw my brother last.

You're the fool!
> It is/*was you who are the fool!

Napoleon lost at Waterloo.
> It *is/was Napoleon who lost at Waterloo.

There is a lot of dialect variation here, though; for example, in Irish English, where cleft sentences are especially common, (10) and (14) would both be acceptable.