I think, that is or that was(parallelism)

Question

Suppose you were chatting with your English teacher online via Skype or the like, and then it suddenly was disconnected, which was more likely your connection problem and not your teacher's, furthermore, you reconnected it and you said:

"I think that is my network provider's connection problem, not yours."

Or

"I think that was my network provider's connection problem, not yours."

Regarding parallelism, sentence #1 complies with the rule, but I believe it is more appropriate to use past helping verb like in sentence #2.

Which is correct between them?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 08 '18 at 09:38

1

It depends on whether you are really referring to the "connection" or the "problem". In:

I think that was my network provider's connection problem, not yours.

the "problem" has (hopefully) ended, so you would use past tense.

However, the "connection" (the basic service provided by the ISP) continues to exist in the present. So in that context present tense would be OK.

I think that is my network provider's connection problem, not yours.

edited Aug 08 '18 at 09:38

J.R.

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answered Aug 08 '18 at 06:11

user3169

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This is just my opinion, if ''that is'' is used in the context of what you are explaining, then should it be ''this is'' instead? – John Arvin Aug 08 '18 at 08:46
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@JohnA - "that is" and "this is" can often be used interchangeably. Check out the Them, These, and Those story on an earlier, related ELL question. – J.R. Aug 08 '18 at 09:40
@J.R., I have a question, why did you capitalize the word ''english'' as my ''english teacher'' where in fact it is as adjective here? Just a query if it's ok. – John Arvin Aug 08 '18 at 11:57
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@JohnA - English, when referring to the language, is always spelled with a capital 'E'. You can see this ELU question for more information. – J.R. Aug 08 '18 at 14:15

I think, that is or that was(parallelism)

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