tenses

[jasper]

Hi

I read these sentences in an article - why did the writer use past tense "he did not feel" and not the present tense "he feels"

"He accepts that the time she took off following the first mva to be reasonable; however he did not feel that her future employment as a nurse would be in any way limited as a result of these events."

thank you

[Joe]

You should not take this example as a model of English since the first part is completely ungrammatical. It should read:

• He accepts that the time she took off following the first MVA was reasonable;

If we ignore this gross infringement , you are still probably right to be puzzled. The present tense in the second part would seem more natural and would match the first:

• He accepts that the time she took off following the first MVA was reasonable; however, he does not feel that her future employment as a nurse will be in any way limited as a result of these events.

Nevertheless, without further context to go by, the whole sentence seems illogical, in particular the use of "however".

[Tom]

I think because that is the way that he felt when he decided to take the time off...