A Question of tense...

Joined
Mar 6, 2020
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15
With apologies, I wasn't paying attention in English class, I think I took one once... Can one mix tenses in a sentence?

(Patagraph to this point is in present tense.) "Since we hadn’t planned on making dinner tonight, we stop and get Chinese take-out on the way home, Mu-shu pork and Kung-pao beef. (Sentence starts in past tense (,) returns to present tense)

(New paragraph - Five sentences in present tense as they wait for the food. Then a half sentence in past tense followed by rest of the paragraph in present tense.) That the last week has been great, that I love the way that he talks to me and not at me..."

Thank you.
 
"Since we hadn't planned on making dinner tonight" is in past perfect tense. You would use that if the rest of your story were in past tense.

Since your story is in present tense, you use present perfect. This is the tense you use to indicate that something has happened right before the present. In some cases you might also use past tense.

The right way would be this:

"Since we HAVEN'T planned on making dinner tonight,"

The second group of bold faced words is correct.
 
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