Bleuet

[formal pendant]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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[alpine scroll]

You have to stick to one tense, past or present, same as in English

Both could work, but you started with past, so it all should be past

[lucid scroll]

Could you switch those it was a point of view thing? If it was in the point of view of Julien rather then a 3rd person, it would make more sense to be present?

[alpine scroll]

Would need to be very clearly split, like a quote or something

It's very possible but you need to know how to do it in a way that's clear & makes sense, and should serve some kind of purpose instead of just randomly switching perspectives

[lucid scroll]

I see, well thank you!
il have to work on this some more

[ashen kite]

It doesn't depend on who's point of view it is, it depends on who's speaking

If it's the narrator and they started with a past tense, it should always be past, even if it's a character's thoughts

You could only use the present in a quote then

Or in a vérité générale

[steep gyro]

A past story can never go present

[alpine scroll]

I've definitely seen it, it's a stylistic choice but has to be encadré super well

Which for most people in most contexts it just isn't the case/isn't possible

"a character's thoughts" for me is equivalent to a quote and thus can use the present

But generally speaking the rule is to stay in the same tense the entire time. People can break that rule, but you have to know how to do it, so 99%+ of the time it's best to just stick to the rule