Your uncertain list
Read out the sentences you flagged. For each: what exactly were you unsure about?
The five patterns
Collected across Lessons 1–5
| Pattern | What appears | What it should be | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present perfect with a date | has been relocated on 14 December | was relocated on 14 December | A stated past time forces the past simple |
| Past simple for a standing result | I revised the table | the table has been revised | PT revisei covers both; English separates event from state |
| Missing locator | The wall has been lowered. | …and is shown on Sheet L5, Delta 2 | A change the reviewer cannot find is a repeat comment |
| Blanket hedge over a known fact | the wall is approximately four feet | the wall is 3 ft 11 in at its highest point | Reads as doubt about something you measured |
| Unhedged contradiction | Your measurement is wrong. | We would note that the wall scales to… | Correct, and it costs you the reviewer |
Restating a comment: reported speech that does not backshift
Two ways to report the comment
| Form | Example | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| No backshift | Comment 2 states that the wall exceeds four feet. | The comment still says it — you are quoting a live document |
| Backshift | The reviewer said the wall exceeded four feet. | You are reporting a past conversation, not the written comment |
| Reading, not quoting | We understand the comment to refer to the rear wall. | The comment is ambiguous and you are fixing your reading of it |
| Requirement reported | Comment 3 asks us to dimension the setbacks. | The comment demands an action rather than states a fact |
The no-backshift form is the one to default to in a letter, and it is the one Portuguese speakers under-use. The correction list is a document sitting on the reviewer’s desk; it has not stopped saying what it says. Backshifting it (the comment said the wall exceeded…) quietly puts it in the past, as though it were a remark someone once made — which is a strange thing to do to a document you are formally answering.
Keep the backshift for the phone call in the next lesson, where you really are reporting something someone said.
Fix them
Each sentence carries one of the five patterns. Rewrite it.
1. The rear wall has been lowered on 3 March 2025.
2. I revised the impervious surface table.
3. The turf has been itemised separately.
4. The rear wall is approximately four feet at its highest point.
5. Your measurement of the wall is wrong.
Complete each sentence with the correct form of the word in brackets.
- The set was returned with a list of from the Building Division. CORRECT
- We have no to dimensioning the setbacks as requested. OBJECT
- Comment 1 is and the table has been revised. ACKNOWLEDGE
- The response letter gives a full of each change. EXPLAIN
- The wall is with the published tables for segmental gravity walls. COMPLY
- The general notes state that the source drawing might be . ACCURATE
Rework your own three
Task card
The three responses you wrote in Lesson 5
Read them aloud and fix every instance of the five patterns.
- Read aloud, not silently. A missing locator is much easier to hear than to see.
- Every hedge covering something you measured comes out and is replaced by the figure.
- Every hedge covering something you genuinely do not know stays — and gets more specific.
Grammar or nerve?
Of the changes you just made, how many were grammar and how many were confidence? Be honest about the split — they need different work, and only one of them is English.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Next lesson the reviewer telephones about your letter. Have the set open, know which sheet each of your three changes is on, and have the manufacturer tables for the wall to hand.