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TENSES USED IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN SUBORDINATE CLAUSES AFTER A PAST TENSE IN THE PRINCIPAL CLAUSE
| ENGLISH | RUSSIAN |
| Past Indefinite | Present |
| I knew she played the piano every day. | Я знал, что она играет (играла) на рояле каждый день. |
| Past Continuous | Present |
| I knew she was playing the piano and did not want to disturb her. | Я знал, что она играет (играла) на рояле, и не хотел ее беспокоить. |
| Past Perfect | Past |
| I knew she had played the piano at the evening party. | Я знал, что она играла на рояле на вечере. |
| Past Perfect Continuous (Past Perfect Inclusive) | Present (in affirmative sentences) |
| I knew she had been playing (had played) the piano for two hours. | Я знал, что она играет (играла) на рояле два часа. |
| Past Perfect | Past (in negative sentences) |
| I knew she had not played the piano for a long time. | Я знал, что она давно не играла (не играет) на рояле. |
| Past Perfect Continuous Exclusive | Past |
| I knew she had been playing the piano. | Я знал, что она играла на рояле. |
| Future in the Past | Future |
| I knew she would play the piano at the evening party. | Я знал, что она будет играть на рояле на вечере. |
§ 7. The main sphere where the sequence of tenses is applied is object clauses.
Harris said he knew what kind of place I meant. (Jerome)
The sequence of tenses is not observed if the object clause expresses a general truth:
The pupils knew that water consists of oxygen and hydrogen.
In political language a present tense is often used in the object clause after a past tense in the principal clause.
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The speaker said that the peoples want peace.
The sequence of tenses is often not observed if something is represented as habitual, customary, or characteristic.
He asked the guard what time the train usually starts. (Curme)
He did not seem to know that nettles sting. (Curme)
In conventional direct speech the tenses are used according to the same principle which governs their uses in complex sentences with a principal clause and an object clause, though there is no principal clause.
She put her hands up to her ears; it was because there were. some thin gold
rings in them, which were also worth a little money. Yes, she could surely get
some money for her ornaments. The landlord and landlady had been good to
her; perhaps they would help her to get the money for these things. But this
money would not keep her long; what should she do when it was gone?
(Eliot)
§ 9. The sequence of tenses does not concern attributive relative clauses and adverbial clauses of cause, result, comparison, and concession (if the verb stands in the Indicative Mood).
I didn’t go out of the shop door, but at the back door, which opens into a
narrow alley. (Eliot)
He didn’t go to the cinema last night because he will have an exam
tomorrow.
She worked so much yesterday that she is feeling quite weak today.
Last year he worked more than he does this year.
He insisted on going to the library yesterday, though he will not want the
book today.
§ 10. The sequence of tenses is generally observed in subject clauses and predicative clauses:
What he would do was of no importance.
The question was what he would do next.
It is also observed in appositive attributive clauses:
She had a sickening sense that life would go on in this way. (Eliot)
Chapter XIX
