Help me with my English please

[Redfraggle]

Hi all, Ive got to approve my Website front page and I can't decide on what is the correct word.

Is it generations passed

or generations past?

I can't decide.

[SparkOut]

past

[Scurra]

It's hard to know without the full context!
My first instinct is to ask: Does the sentence still make sense if you put the word "past/passed" before the word "generations" instead of after? If it does, then it's probably "past".

e.g. "In generations past, we did these things..." would also make sense as "In past generations we did these things..." but "As generations passed these things changed..." would not work as "As passed generations these things changed..." <waits for someone to provide counter-example. >

[SparkOut]

OK, mine was a prediction, not an answer... but yes... what Scurra said!

[Redfraggle]

The sentence reads ...of generations passed.

Im trying to resize the image but unsuccessfully

[giraffe]

Past. You mean "in the past" don't you.

[LAT]

I think we still need more of that sentence! I agree it's likely that you want 'past' unless the sentence is "hundreds of generations passed and then....

[Cenwulf]

I suppose it depends whether it needs to be a verb or an adjective.

'Past' in the context of 'generations past' is an adjective. It describes the noun 'generations'.

'Passed' in the context of 'generations passed' is a verb. It says what the noun 'generations' is doing - or in this case, what they did (as it is in the past tense, i.e. already happened).

[Redfraggle]

Ive just sent Scurra the front page so he can see it for himself. This might give us an answer.



The sentence reads 'history is brought to life by the stories told and our children learn about childhoods of generations passed.'

[giraffe]

past generations reads better to me, but generations past would be ok.

[Redfraggle]

Thank you - I dont have a clue about English.

[giraffe]

The ones I struggle with are the past tense of learn and mean . Learnt and meant look wrong, but meaned is definitely wrong and learned doesn't look good either.

[Redfraggle]

Began and begun are my confusables.

Im just carp at English - Maths is good for me!

[Bunnylump]

Personally, I would think it should be generations passed. As in generations which have passed. But if you wanted it to mean generations FROM the past then past it is.

[Redfraggle]

OMW somebody make a decision I still dont have a clue.

[giraffe]

Personally, I would think it should be generations passed. As in generations which have passed.

That doesn't make sense to me.

[LAT]

past generations reads better to me, but generations past would be ok.

I agree with this too.

[Bunnylump]

Which did you want it to mean? Generations which have passed (as in ones which have come and gone over a period of time = verb- doing word) or generations from the past (as in ones which are from ages ago= adjective describing the generations)?

Eg the train passed = the train went by
the train past (a train that you used to get in the past).

As you can see, if you put a different noun (thing) in, it makes it easier to see which sentence makes more sense.

So, on balance, I would either say
'history is brought to life by the stories told and our children learn about childhoods of generations passed.'

OR

'history is brought to life by the stories told and our children learn about childhoods of past generations."

OR

'history is brought to life by the stories told and our children learn about childhoods of generations FROM the past."

[giraffe]

The first one still looks odd to me and as there are two valid options that Hazel has found I would play it safe and use one of those.

Part of it is that different localities use different colloquialisms and so something that sounds an awkward sentence structure to one of us will sound great to another. Something Gill says and I think red fraggle does too is (I'll get this wrong now) "The floor needs washed" To me that would be "The floor needs to be washed". I had never come across this expression or use of grammar until I met you lot, but I think it is just regional dialect variations.

[Redfraggle]

Have you been in my kitchen? The floor definitely needs washed!

Bunny, I mean generations from before the present time - so which one is that?