Sequence of Tenses in English

The Sequence of Tenses

Если в главном предложении сказуемое-глагол стоит в настоящем или в будущем времени, сказуемое-глагол в придаточном может стоять в любом времени, требуемом по смыслу:

I thought that you would go to school.

Я думал, что ты пойдёшь в школу.

I knew that his father was a teacher.

He thought that I was playing chess.

I know that she is a good pupil.

He will say that he is your friend.

I know that she was a wonderful cook those years in our district.

He will say that they lived in Moscow.

I know that she will be a good doctor.

He told me that his father was a teacher.

Он сказал мне, что его отец учитель.

He told me that his father had been a teacher.

Он сказал мне, что его отец был учителем. (раньше)

Bob thought that I was singing a Spanish song.

Боб думал, что я пою испанскую песню.

He told me that he would go to Crimea in summer.

Он сказал мне, что поедет летом в Крым.

He was telling us that he had a good ear for music and poems.

Он рассказывал, что у него хороший слух.

She said that she was making a new dress for her daughter.

Она сказала, что она шьёт новое платье дочке.

Past Perfect и Past Perfect Continuous в придаточном предложении показывают, что действие произошло раньше:

I thought that you had seen her.

She said she had been reading that book for a long time.

Future in the Past (в любой форме) в придаточном предложении показывает, что действие произойдёт позже, чем действие в главном предложении:

I thought you would come to see us.

My sister said she would be sitting in the 2^nd row at the theatre.

He told us that his brother would have written a story by the end of the following week.

He said yesterday that by the time we were back he would have finished the letter.

Глаголы в обстоятельственных предложениях сравнения могут стоять в любом времени, независимо от времени, употребленного в главном предложении. Это часто относится также и к глаголам в придаточных определительных предложениях:

You know English as well as my father did last year.

Before he came to Moscow he looked worse than he does now.

Next year you will be more interested in reading English books than you were last year.

The old man whom you see here was at the war with my grandfather.

The key which I left in my room is quite necessary for me now.

Last year my pupils did not read English so well as they do now.

Если в придаточном дополнительном предложении утверждается какая-нибудь общеизвестная истина, то , несмотря на прошедшее время главного предложения, в придаточном можно употребить настоящее время, в этих случаях закон согласования времён не действует:

The teacher told us that the Earth moves round the Sun.

The pupils learnt at the geography lesson that there are for cardinal points –the North, the South, the East, the West.

He was trying to prove that this English word comes from French.

I always knew that people with no ear for music make bad singers.

She told me that the distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg is 600 kilometers.