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Now in the past

di Alkanadi, 29 giugno 2016

Messaggi: 5

Lingua: English

Alkanadi (Mostra il profilo) 29 giugno 2016 08:34:46

Nun iu frapis la pordegon de la kastelo...

Nun = now
frapis = hit in the past

Is this sentence grammatically correct?

johmue (Mostra il profilo) 29 giugno 2016 09:07:13

Alkanadi:Nun iu frapis la pordegon de la kastelo...

Nun = now
frapis = hit in the past

Is this sentence grammatically correct?
I had discussions about that with several people. I think it is correct, because it means something like "Now is the time, that the long awaited knocking at the door is finally in the past."

So if the event, that the past tense verb is talking about, changed some situation in the way, that you can say there is a before and an after, I think the combination of "nun" + past tense is actually quite useful.

If on the other hand the event is of minor importance, I wouldn't use "nun" but "jxus". For example "Jxus bojis hundo."

Alkanadi (Mostra il profilo) 29 giugno 2016 10:01:12

johmue:I had discussions about that with several people. I think it is correct, because it means something like "Now is the time, that the long awaited knocking at the door is finally in the past."
Thanks. I was reading the Esperanto story about the Princess and the Pea. The author uses Nun and a past tense verb three times in the story.

At first I thought it was a typo and should have been Nu.

opalo (Mostra il profilo) 30 giugno 2016 18:13:28

Nun in the past is equivalent to en/ekde tiu momento, with the suggestion of a sudden event, or a change in circumstances. The purpose is to place you mentally in the scene, and make the narration more vivid: La malfacila vojaĝo daŭris semajnon, kaj nun mi staris antaŭ la pordo.

tommjames (Mostra il profilo) 01 luglio 2016 18:39:44

Some PMEG info about his.

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