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Please help. Grammar questions.

Posted by EglshLearner · September 13, 2017 · 4 replies

Hello!
I've been learning English Grammar recently and found there're many things I don't know.
Could you please help me out?
Here're the questions:
1.
She still loves fishing even if she didn't catch a fish.
She still loves fishing even if she doesn't catch a fish.
Which one sounds correct? why? which tense is more proper to use here?

2.
Sometimes we caught lots of fish.
Some times we catch lots of fish.
I want to express that I do caught lots of fish sometimes.
Which tense I shall use? Which one is more proper?

Thank you in advance!

4 Replies

Is there any warm hearted gentleman and beutiful lady can help me with this?
I would be so appreciated!!!
Thank you!

Neither is very natural. You would say :

She still loves fishing even though she has never caught a fish.

a) "even though" introduces a fact, whereas "even if" introduces a hypothetical possibility. Compare :
I'm going out for a long walk, even though it's raining. (the rain is a fact - she knows it's raining at the moment).
I'm going for a long walk tomorrow even if it's raining. (rain tomorrow is just a hypothetical possibility).

b) the verb form : the present perfect is used to express talk about past to present time. Here the concept is: from the time she started fishing up to now. The past simple is used for a specific past time : She went fishing yesterday but she didn't catch anything.

Alternatively you could say :

She still goes fishing even though she never catches anything.

This means you are talking about a "permanent"situation - something you consider to be always true. It has always been like that in the past and you imagine it will continue to be like that in the future.

Sorry - I didn't see the second set of questions when I answered before. These are easy - are you talking about a permanent fact :

Every time my friends and I go fishing, we catch a lot of fish.

or a past event :

I had a fishing holiday with my friends last year and we caught a lot of fish.

Your comment seems to indicate that you mean the first. So :

I often go fishing with my friends. Sometimes we catch a lot of fish. Other times, we don't catch anything.

But if you are talking about the past :

I had a fishing holiday with my friends last year. Sometimes we caught a lot of fish. Other times we didn't catch anything.