(ot) car length poll

[kentmclean at mindspring.com (Kent McLean)]

David L. Winchell, II wrote:
> Yeah I know there
> were some ancient cars that WERE (past tense) longer.

I believe those "ancient" cars (I'll assume you mean "old" rather
than "relating to the historical period before the fall of the Western
Roman Empire", since there were no cars produced in that period)
are still (present tense) longer than 20'. They haven't  changed their
size, have they?

> If you remember much about English and the conjugation of verbs, you
should
> recognize the present tense of the verb "to do". <I can tell you that
> production cars do NOT run longer than 20'.> Past tense would be DID.

Since there is no past tense of length, I'll assume you are talking
past tense of the production of the car (i.e., when it was produced).
So cars that were produced last year don't qualify (as that would
be past tense)?
How about cars produced yesterday (as that is also in the past)?
And cars to be built tomorrow (future tense) don't qualify either?
How about cars made an hour ago?  Is that "present" or "past"?
Is it correct to say, "That car is produced an hour ago."?
Limiting us to the present tense makes for a very narrow window
of production.

And are you sure you don't mean cars whose *lengths* do not run
longer than 20 feet?  I have a car that has been running for much
longer than 20 feet. It's been running for over *230K miles*.

Given the context, I knew you didn't mean that 20' as 20 minutes
of arc. Or did you?

> Words
> have meaning people. If used correctly and then understood
competently, miss
> understanding will be avoided.

So true. And since you obviously used those words correctly,
I must not be understanding them competently.  Please help me out,
so I do not misunderstand.

Kent