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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/4/2012
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The next election may be a watershed election, as there are many MPs are too old to continue serving by then.
Is the part in bold OK? I have revised it as follows. Is it better?
The next election may be a watershed election, as many MPs are too old to continue serving by then.
Thanks.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 6/14/2009
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Location: Brighton, England, United Kingdom
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Koh -
When is the next election? It's not to-day, is it?
It's some time in the future, right? So check your tenses again.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Thanks, Romany.
The writer is talking about the general elections due in Singapore in August 2021. As it is about the future, is it wrong to use the present tense?
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Yes, the problem is it needs a future tense. But the sentence is also a mixture of two constructions you can't use together.
Either something happens until some point in the future, or it will happen by some point in the future.
This sentence mixes up the two and just makes a mess.
Now
continue + until
They are too old to continue to serve until then.
(That means they will have to stop serving before the election, not just not stand)
Or
Future
will be + by then
They will be too old to serve by then
(by the time that time arrives, they will be too old)
You can't have it both ways in the same sentence!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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The next election may be a watershed election, as many MPs will be too old to continue serving by then.
The next election may be a watershed election, as there are many MPs who will be too old to continue serving by then.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/4/2012
Posts: 3,356
Neurons: 13,723
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Thanks to all of you.
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