[Ads-l] odd sequence of tenses

Barretts Mail mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM
Mon Oct 11 22:21:07 UTC 2021


Isn’t that just the narrative present? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present>

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 11 Oct 2021, at 05:40, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> David Axelrod, former Obama official, on CNN:
> 
> "If there had not been a coronavirus in 2020,  Trump probably wins that
> election."
> 
> Note the formality of "had not" before the weirdness sets in.
> 
> JL

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