Thursday 6 December 2018

Today's statement of the obvious

From the BBC:

Bush was almost certainly the last US president to have fought in World War II.

3 comments:

Bayard said...

Don't they know?

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, depends on how you interpret it.

Question: was GHWB the last (i.e. most recent) US president to have fought in WW2? Answer: unequivocal yes.

Question: how likely is it that somebody who fought in WW2 will be elected US President in future? Answer: highly unlikely, he or she would be over 90 years old by now.

Bayard said...

Surely the second option would require the future perfect tense.