Posted by wendy3 · June 27, 2012 · 2 replies
A candidate in an election says:
"it is an honour to be elected"
of course the present tense can be used to talk about future:
eg the train departs at 7:00 am
but I think the red sentence is wrong, because the person is a candidate, not one who has been elected, so it should be rewritten as:
"it will be an honour to be elected."
what do you think?
Depends on the context - s/he could be talking in general, in which case the first form verb, expressing a permanent fact would be appropriate : It is an honour (for any candidate for this post) to be elected (at any time).
However, if the candidate is definitely talking about their own election - yes, it's a prediction, not a fact and the first form verb makes no sense. If they were very arrogant, then will : It will be an honour for me to be elected - arrogant because the use of will presumes the occurrence of the action. To be more modest, they would need to use would : It would be an honour for me to be elected. would is the second form of will and therefore adds hypotheticality to the prediction.
mmmm agree agree
thank you~~
