Should I use "He is" or "He was" In my childhood, I often used to play chess with my cousin. He lived not far away from my place, and was(is) one year younger than me. In the above sentence, should

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Should I use "He is" or "He was" In my childhood, I often used to play chess with my cousin. He lived not far away from my place, and was(is) one year younger than me. In the above sentence, should I use "was", or "is" ? On the one hand, I am talking about what happened in the past, so I should use past tense "was" ; on the other hand, that "he is one year younger than me" is of course still true. so I should use "is"? which one should I use? Thanks a lot

Nov 24, 2015 10:42 AM

Answers · 5

Generally speaking, I think it is better to keep one tense in a paragraph (if it past, keep it in the past tense.) So, even though "is" works, I would use "was". Good question though. It really made me think!

November 24, 2015

To me, saying "was" sounds more natural. Also, "he lived not far away from my place" sounds strange. I would use "his place was not far from mine", "he lived pretty close to me", or "he didn't live too far away from me."

November 24, 2015