Page 1 of 1

Need help to identify specific tense

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:27 am
by MikkelE
I have this text from School where i have to identify the different tenses used, and i'm having some trouble. please Help.

President Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was released from a federal prison and into home confinement Thursday. His release comes amid concerns he had been exposed to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Cohen, 53, who once proclaimed he would take a bullet for the president, was sentenced in 2018 to a three-year federal prison term following guilty pleas to a number of financial and political crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He had been serving at a medium-security federal correctional institution in Otisville, N.Y. He was scheduled to be released in November 2021.

Re: Need help to identify specific tense

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 12:48 pm
by MikkelE
i have written this so far. maybe someone can give some pointers

Ok, well, let's start with the first sentence. "President Trump's former personal attorney and fixer” is the present perfect continuous tense because it talks about something that happened before now. It uses the word "former" to indicate that the person referred to has left office.
Next we have "was released." That's the simple past tense because it tells us that something happened in the past. The word "released" indicates that the prisoner was taken out of jail. Next we have "into home confinement." That's the present perfect tense
: “his release comes amid concerns he had been exposed to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus." That's the present perfect tense because it tells us that something happened while the previous event is still happening. It's using the words "comes" and "amid".

Re: Need help to identify specific tense

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 1:42 pm
by Firefoxjo
President Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was released [PAST SIMPLE] from a federal prison and into home confinement Thursday. His release comes [PRESENT SIMPLE] amid concerns he had been exposed [PAST PERFECT] to COVID-19, the disease {THAT IS} caused [PRESENT SIMPLE] by the coronavirus. Cohen, 53, who once proclaimed [PAST SIMPLE] he would take [PAST OF WILL] a bullet for the president, was sentenced [PAST SIMPLE] in 2018 to a three-year federal prison term following guilty pleas to a number of financial and political crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He had been serving [PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS] at a medium-security federal correctional institution in Otisville, N.Y. He was scheduled [PAST SIMPLE] to be released in November 2021.

Note that some of these verbs are in the passive voice. :mrgreen: