History Main / SuspiciouslySpecificTense

* At a potential crime scene in ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' where an abandoned car filled with blood has been discovered, Sherlock questions a woman as to her husband's supposed state of mind leading up to the presumed suicide. She uses past tense when describing him, something he finds suspicious considering they've only ''just'' found the car. [[spoiler:Turns out the husband had faked his own death to avoid money troubles; his wife was in on it and spreading the idea that he was deeply depressed]].

* In ''StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', Spock refers to whales becoming extinct in the past tense. Gillian catches this.

* In the movie ''BatmanReturns'', after Catwoman reveals to Max Shreck that Bruce Wayne, who is "dressed up like Batman," actually ''is'' Batman, Shreck says "Was," and tries to kill him.

* RobinOfSherwood: Much can't bring himself to say what happened to his father, Robin's stepfather, but he manages to say "He was your father too!" through tears.

*** Speaking about someone you know is dead in the past tense is normal. Speaking about someone you don't know is dead isn't. Hence the past tense being suspicious when they shouldn't know the person's dead.

-->'''Death:''' [[/folder]]

[[folder: Was. ]]

-->'''Death:''' [[/folder]]

[[folder: I said "was". It's called the past tense. You'll soon get used to it. ]]

[[AC: ComicBooks]]
* In an issue of {{Spider-Man}}, an enforcer and a corrupt gym owner are talking about a boxer who wants to leave the gym.

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

* In Dragon Flight, creel accidentally reveals that [[spoiler: Shardas]], presumed dead in the first book, is alive by telling another dragon, " why shouldn't I tell[[spoiler: Shardas]]. He and I are friends." " Are?" she then has to tell all, but it works out for the best.

-->'''Death:''' [[AC:Was.]]

-->'''Death:''' [[AC: I said "was". It's called the past tense. You'll soon get used to it.]]

[[AC: Live Action TV]]

** Also used in an episode of Til Death Do Us Part, where the police officers investigating the murder picked up on a wife giving an interview about her husband and how great he ''was'' and how much she ''loved'' him, or lines like that, and quickly realized that she seemed to already know he was dead.

** ''{{CSI}}'' also use it occasionally to subtly reveal, when children are present, that someone has died: "He ''was'' your client."

[[AC:Theatre]]

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Webcomics]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

-->'''Peter:''' "Thought?" Past tense?

[[AC: RealLife]]

----

* In ''The Growing Pains of AdrianMole'', Adrian is writing about "Stick Insect", the woman he thinks is his father's ex-mistress: "I have just realized that Stick Insect used the present tense when she was referring to her relationship with my father. [[DramaticIrony It is absolutely disgraceful.]] [[CompletelyMissingThePoint A woman of thirty not knowing the fundamentals of grammar!]]"

-->''I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.''
--->-- '''MitchHedberg'''

* Played with in SweeneyTodd: "Such a nice plump frame what's-his-name has...had...has." The switch back is because even though Pirelli is now dead, Mrs. Lovett is contemplating [[ImAHumanitarian baking him into a pie]], for which purposes he ''does'' still have the nice plump frame.

----
<<|{{Dialogue}}|>>

* In ''{{CSI}}'', Captain Brass starts reinvestigating one of his old cases, the apparently accidental death of a woman, when he sees her husband out on the town with a brand new sports car. He later tells the husband that he should've been suspicious as soon as he (the husband) told Brass, right after the accident, he ''loved'' his wife. In Brass' experience, someone facing a loved one's death so soon after said even usually haven't processed it enough to refer to them in the past tense. Although the investigation doesn't lead to a conviction (yet) and the suspect's lawyer even scoffs at Brass basing his case on the "past tense" theory, it's more than enough for the ''insurance company'' to initiate its own investigation... starting with towing away the suspect's car.

So Alice is telling Bob an incredible story about something that's happened in the past. Say for instance, Alice says "Elvis was the greatest rock star in the world!"

Almost peculiarly, Bob will pick up the word "was," and make some sort of question based around "You said ''was'', so what happened to him?"

This encompasses any instance wherein a character picks up on something due to the past tense. A classic example is a ConvictionByContradiction situation where the suspect refers to a murder victim in the past tense when the suspect couldn't know the victim was dead.

* In ''{{CSI}}'', Captain Brass starts reinvestigating one of his old cases, the apparently accidental death of a woman, when he sees her husband out on the town with a brand new sports car. He later tells the husband that he should've been suspicious as soon as he (the husband) told Brass, right after the accident, he ''loved'' his wife. In Brass' experience, someone facing a loved one's death so soon after said even usually haven't processed it enough to refer to them in the past tense.

* While being interrogated about the whereabouts of her children (she claimed that they had been kidnapped by a carjacker), Susan Smith repeatedly said, "I loved them, they were my life". The already suspicious cops picked on her constant use of past tense and soon came to the correct conclusion that Susan had murdered her children.

--->-- '''Mitch Hedberg'''

* In the movie ''[[{{Comicbook/Batman}} Batman Returns]]'', after Catwoman reveals to Max Shreck that Bruce Wayne, who is "dressed up like Batman," actually ''is'' Batman, Shreck says "Was," and tries to kill him.

* In ''The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole'', Adrian is writing about "Stick Insect", the woman he thinks is his father's ex-mistress: "I have just realized that Stick Insect used the present tense when she was referring to her relationship with my father. [[DramaticIrony It is absolutely disgraceful.]] [[CompletelyMissingThePoint A woman of thirty not knowing the fundamentals of grammar!]]"

* In The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry accidentally reveals when Claire's mother will die on a jaunt to the past.

* A source of MemeticMutation regarding the SmashBros Brawl website, which when first revealed Lucas, mentioned Ness as a character who appeared in the Smash Bros series "up until now". That phrase coupled with Lucas' obvious similarity to Ness convinced everyone that Ness wasn't coming back. Ultimately Ness did in fact come back.

* In ''{{CSI}}'' when Brass knows intuitively that a suspect is guilty because everyone he ever heard refer to a missing spouse in the past tense was guilty.

** That is BS. This Troper's father is dead, died when This Troper was 5, almost 6; the day of the funeral was the morning after his death. This Troper distinctly remembers his father being spooken about in the past tense by everybody - including This Troper's mother.

* ''{{CSI}}'' also use it occasionally to subtly reveal, when children are present, that someone has died: "He ''was'' your client."

* RobinOfSherwood: Much can't bring himself to say what happenned to his father, Robin's stepfather, but he manages to say "He was your father too!" through tears.