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Tiffany lam
it was dead or it is dead? i'm arguing about this grammar with my friend.
This is how it happened.
in this evening, a centipede came out from a hole of the toilet in our washroom. I flushed it down to the toilet. the time of occurrence was around quarter to 8pm. Now，the time that we are debating in our country is 23:10.
So, the centipede was dead. Am i right?
He said that it was alive when the centipede came out from the toilet hole, so now it is dead.
which one is correct?
Oct 6, 2018 3:14 PM
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Answers · 6
I agree with Chowderp.
If you say: the centipede was dead. Then you are saying that it was dead in the past and that "dead" ended. Meaning it came back to life. Which ofcourse is not possible.
We use "was" to tell that something is in the past. But in this case, the centipede is still dead today, so it is not in the past.
So the correct answer: the centipede is dead and it was killed.
October 6, 2018
Your friend is correct. The centipede is dead. The centipede was killed.
October 6, 2018
The other answers here are correct. Thumbs up. I don't know why someone gave them a thumbs-down.
Another option: "The centipede died when it was flushed down the toilet.
You can correctly say "was dead" in this context: "I am sure that it was (already) dead by the time it reached the sewer."
October 6, 2018
