Urgent! Help! Grammar questions!?

Question

(1)Why it is correct? "3" kinds of tense?
As Dan (recalls) the incident, the man( had barged )into the back seat of a passing car( stopped) at a red light.

(2)Why don't use "had received"?
Dan went to the address (he received), but it turned out to a bad call.

(3) Why use "its"?
America buys most of( its) pumpkins in grocery stores.

(4) Is it correct?
For example, the owner of the town's hardware store, Tom Zettler, (asserts makes) 25 percent of his sales to trhe Amish.

(5) Why use "go"not 'going'or not 'went back'?
In short, they favor traditional customs that, (go )back hundreds of years.

Thanks.

Answer 1

(1) Dan is recalling the incident in the present, so the present tense is used. However, the incident occurred in the past, so one of the past tenses is used. The word "stopped" is part of the phrase "which was stopped", but here the "which was" is left out as unnecessary to the meaning. It is also a past tense.
(2) Either form is correct, actually I would have used the "had received" form.
(3) "Its" is referring to America, which is a singular noun, even though the meaning is pluralistic (meaning the people of America).
(4) The correct wording would be "asserts he makes" or "asserts that he makes".
(5) The main sentence is in the present tense (favor), so you use the present tense for the verb "go".

Answer 2

1. We're talking about Dan's current memory of the incident, so we use present tense for "As Dan recalls....." We could also say "As far as Dan knows..." -- it's still his current knowledge. Using the past perfect (had + past participle, had barged) implies that this action happened before another action, both in the past. I bet the next sentence has a simple past tense in it. ;-) And here, "stopped" isn't any tense at all because it's not a verb -- it's a predicate adjective, which uses the past participle.

2. You could use had received, because there are two actions in the past (he received the address and he went to it), and this one happened first. However, it is common to use two simple pasts if it is clear from context which happened first.

3. Its is a possessive pronoun, like his and hers. Since America is neither male nor female, we use its. (I'm not sure if I'm really answering your question here -- can you be more specific?)

4. Makes. You make sales. Later, you can assert that you made many sales. ;-)

5. Here, go back to an earlier time = belong to an earlier time. Those customs haven't stopped belonging to an earlier time; they still do. Therefore, we need the simple present tense.

I hope that helps. :-)

Answer 3

1. Dan is recalling (present) something that had happened previously. "A car stopped at a red light" is just describing the scene. To say "... a passing car that had (or had been) stopped at a red light" is cumbersome.

3. Possessive pronouns do not have an apostrophe. Think of "its" right along there with yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, etc. The word "it's" is, of course, a contraction for "it is".

4. I'm not sure I understand the sentence. You are probably looking for "... asserts he makes..."

5. The customs "go back", meaning they date back to a certain time. To say "they went back" implies (to me anyway) the customs are not current.

The answers I gave you are off the top of my head, and I may not be correct in some of them. There are two source books I have found very helpful throughout my life: "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, and the "Holt Handbook".

Answer 4

1] he ' recalls' it now [ present ];
' had barged ' is what a man did - acted in the past;
' stopped ' is what someone did to the car
2] ' he received ' inplies a recent aquisition, today
3] ' its ' is a conjunction used for the possessive form of it;
' it 's ' implies ownership by it
4] ' asserts makes ' is correct, but awkward; I prefer ' asserts he makes '
5] they are using , now, customs ' that go back ' . ' Going ' implies passive use; ' went back ' implies previous use.