Can you help me with this sentence? The downside of the book is that it is written in a rather boring style. Does the speaker mean that the writer of the book is now writing it in boring style or th

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Can you help me with this sentence? The downside of the book is that it is written in a rather boring style. Does the speaker mean that the writer of the book is now writing it in boring style or the writer finished the book before and when the speaker went to read it she understood the book wrote in a boring style? If the meaning of this sentence is my second explanation why the sentence shouldn't be : The downside of the book is that it was written in a rather boring style If I am wrong please tell me the difference between these two sentences Thank you so much

Nov 6, 2015 9:10 AM

Answers · 14

This is a question of tense and aspect. "is written" "was written" Both are fine. Both have perfective aspect, which means it describes a completed action. That's why you don't need past tense even though the writing occurred in the past. The decision to add past tense ('was' instead of 'is'), doesn't change the overall meaning much, but it puts slightly more emphasis on the actions of the writer when he/she wrote it, rather than on describing the book in its current state.

November 6, 2015

It's a statement of fact, so using "is written" is perfectly correct. No need to over-analyse this.

November 6, 2015

i was wondering about the first sentence and the second sentence. i am an English learner, why they use past participle of write by using verb "be" and "was".? base of my learning you'll use past participle in perfect tense, like "it has written".. why do they write like this "it is written" "it was written"..? i'm expected to be "it was wrote" or "it is writing"..

November 6, 2015

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