A couple of songs

Del Vento

In case you did not know the guy was also a singer, here are two songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEWvnAYQOmE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL3STFX9rCY

Pete14

“….was also a singer…”

Did he leave us already?

So young he was, Phil, but he left us a wealth of good material, and to now find out that he ‘was’ also a singer, it just breaks my heart.

CyberGene

I like the two songs as compositions, very nice and smooth vibe! However I don't think his voice does justice to the songs, maybe OK enough to demo them to a proper singer who will then make it shine.

David B

Phil Best died?

QuasiUnaFantasia

David B Probably not, but Del Vento did say that he "was" a singer. Maybe he actually quit singing some time ago, without giving up on the piano playing.

Del Vento

QuasiUnaFantasia David B Probably not, but Del Vento did say that he "was" a singer.

Sorry, Italian grammar from decades ago creeping up…

AFAIK, Phil Best is alive and well.

CyberGene

Del Vento Sorry, Italian grammar from decades ago creeping up…

It's the same in Bulgarian. We use past tense when describing something and implying that we were not aware of the fact until recently.

"He was a singer" - in Bulgarian I would say that with either of two meanings:

He used to be a singer (in the past, but not anymore)
He is a singer but I (the speaker) was not aware of that and just learned it.

Conversely, in Bulgarian when speaking about a deceased singer, we still use simple tense "He is a singer", so it's not clear whether the singer is still alive or deceased.

Theophilus Carter

CyberGene I see the same use in English on occasion, so I'm ruling all this acceptable. 😆

vagfilm

+1 in portuguese... Pete: stop ruling the world or we will nuke you into the past tense 😊

Pete14

vagfilm
I didn’t mean to be rude, but it sounded to me like “he was such a good guy……”

Surely, we’re not saying the guy was ‘good’ and now isn’t good, so I took “the guy was also a singer” as a sort of eulogy to Phil; you know, where we list the accomplishments of the deceased (especially those unknown to the majority), and then finish with “he was such a good guy!”

I apologize for my mistake, and I wish Phil a long and prosperous life.

HZPiano

+1 for Dutch: in such a context (learning a fact one wasn't previously aware of) the same past tense is often used.

No pianist/singers were actually harmed in the process at any time 🙂.

Cheers and happy linguistics,

Del Vento

Pete14 I didn’t mean to be rude,

You did not sound rude to me no worries.

Pete14 I apologize for my mistake,

Nothing to apologize for.

I liked @vagfilm comment only because of our current context of "let's nuke ourselves out of this mess we got in"

MacMacMac

It's nice to read arguments about VERBS rather than about PRONOUNS. For a change. 🙂

Drew-r

@Pete14 , ive long suspected we have more in common than just our reserved, no-nonsense demeanor …. Grammar, HUH!, what is it good for ….. yeah , a segue to imploring @vagfilm and fellow scientists ….. a sincere plea for detente, long enough to consider that such drastic measures always have unintended consequences. Have you given due thought to the half life of Pete142?; and that nuking one such of our rarest natural elements will cause a secondary detonation that will render him to both past & present simultaneously, gone but still here, was & is for, conservatively, the next many hundreds of thousands of years.