my teacher asked me to write my research in past tense so i did....?

Question

THis is the sentence:
As the data is being gathered by an internist from the patient...

then myteacher wants me to change the word 'is" to "was"...


aren't "IS BEING" and "WAS BEING" the same past tense?

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Answer 1

No. "Is being" is in the present continuous sense; it's occurring even as we speak. Was is the past tense of the verb to be. "Was being gathered" is a little redundant. You could simply say ..."the data was gathered by an internist from the patient ..."

Answer 2

"is being" is the present continuous tense, "was being" is the past continuous tense. The former is correct if it always happens, the latter is correct if talking about a situation in the past.

eg "As the data is being gathered from the patient, the internist should make notes" vs "As the data was being gathered from the patient, the internist dropped his stethoscope".

Answer 3

You could just say "As the data was gathered by an internist... and forget about 'being'.

It depends on the rest of the sentence though.

Answer 4

"is" is the present tense of the verb "to be", and "was" is the past tense.

On a related note, your sentence is passive voice, which means that the predicate is being done to the subject. Most modern writers use active voice, where the subject does the predicate.

Answer 5

Not exactly because "is being," is present tense as in "happening now". Example: The girl is being mean. In this sentence, the girl is mean, or it is "happening now". "Was being," is past tense, as in "was happening". Example: The girl was being mean. In this sentence, the girl was being mean, or it "happened in the past."
-Hope this helps.

Answer 6

is being indicates it is currently happening
was being indicates it has already happened

Answer 7

Is it not what it was or was it not wnat it is.