[55a.] In dependent clauses and infinitives, the tense is to be considered in relation to the time expressed in the principal verb.
- Wrong: I intended to have gone. [The principal verb intended indicates a past time. In that past time I intended to do something. What? Did I intend to go, or to have gone?]
- Right: I intended to go.
- Wrong: We hoped that you would have come to the party. [The principal verb hoped indicates a past time. In that past time our hope was that you would come, not that you would have come.]
- Right: We hoped that you would come.
[b.] When narration in the past tense is interrupted for reference to a preceding occurrence, the past perfect tense is used.
- Wrong: In the parlor my cousin kept a collection of animals which he shot.
- Right: In the parlor my cousin kept a collection of animals which he had shot.
[c.] General statements equally true in the past and in the present are usually expressed in the present tense.
- Faulty: He said that Venus was a planet.
- Right: He said that Venus is a planet.
[d.] The subjunctive mode of the verb to be is used to express a condition contrary to fact, or a wish.
- Faulty: If he was here, I should be happy.
- Right: If he were here, I should be happy.
- Faulty: I wish that I was a man.
- Right: I wish that I were a man.
[e.] Use the correct auxiliary. Make sure that the tense, mode, or aspect of successive verbs is not altered without reason.
- Wrong: By giving strict obedience to commands, a soldier learns discipline, and consequently would have steady nerves in time of war. [Learns should be followed by will have.]
- Wrong: An automobile should be kept in good working order so that its life is lengthened. [Should be is properly followed by may be.]