[Grammar] words that imply present tense

[gardentuber]

As I read stories, I've repeatedly encountered the following problem: I'm reading a story that uses the past tense and encounter words like: tomorrow, ago, yesterday, today, tonight. To me, each of those words imply time that is contemporaneous with the reader's present. Shouldn't those words be translated into: the following day, before, the previous day, that day, that night? Wouldn't that keep the reader's attention in the past tense as it refers to the protagonist?

 

See what I'm getting at? Or am I splitting hairs, here? I encounter this so often that I'm wondering if I'm being uptight.

 

Example -

 

Here's a sentence I just came across in a story I'm reading: "By the time he got to his house, he had decided not to approach Callie tonight."

 

To me, that 'tonight' refers to my 'tonight', like, the night of March 13, 2010 (as I write this). If I'm writing in the past tense, shouldn't I write the sentence as: "By the time he got to his house, he had decided not to approach Callie that night." ?

[Nephylim]

I agree absolutely. To be the only exception to mixing tenses is if there is a narrator who is telling a story referring to somethng that is contempraneous to where his is now. For example

 

They visited the old shack in the mountains. It was raining. It was always raining. As far as I know it's still raining there today.

[Graeme]

Time references are something I know my editors keep fixing in my writing. Unless it's in dialogue, I try to avoid using the time references 'today', 'tomorrow', 'yesterday' and 'now'.

[LJH]

Yes, you aRE Absolutely correct. Yesterday, today and tomorrow is used in simple present tense.

 

I will go to town tomorrow.

He promised himself to go to town the next day.

Good observation garden.

[gardentuber]

Yes, you aRE Absolutely correct. Yesterday, today and tomorrow is used in simple present tense.

 

I will go to town tomorrow.

He promised himself to go to town the next day.

Good observation garden.

Thank You! THANK YOU!

 

Can you, like, send a PM to everyone who's written a story or is going to write a story here on GA to let them know of the issue and to tell them that I'm right! Please!!!

 

(not that I have a pitifully weak ego or anything!)

Edited September 5, 2010 by gardentuber

[LJH]

LOL. Garden, in your quoted example, another gremlin lurks ( dada-dada )

 

It all has to do with redundancy and economy of words.

 

By the time he got to his house, he had decided not to approach Callie tonight."

 

Is TONIGHT really important in the context.

Does the reader know, from the context, that the narrator will approach Callie anyway?

 

Why not drop tonight all together. Or say something more simpler, like "immediately". That way, the time reference blunder is sorted.

 

Im thinking....hmmmm

 

Louis J