“They have thought the price including customs cost too”
“They have thought the price was including customs cost too”
Should I use was or not or… ?
You should not use “was”, and you should also not use “including”.
It should be: “They thought the price also included customs duty.”
Hi,
Just a thought - imagine the situation. You can’t see a price tag on an article you want to buy. You ask: How much is this? and you get an answer. Your next question could be: Is that including VAT (Value Added Tax)? And you get your answer. You then report the price to another person and say: He said the price was *** and that was including VAT.
Alan
Present Perfect is wrong here to use ?
Thank you
Present perfect would also be wrong.
Keep in mind that what Alan is presenting here is correct for informal speech. In formal writing it would be better to use what I gave you.
Reason ?
If you use the present perfect without a time reference, it means that something was true at some unspecified time in the past, but maybe it’s not true now.
If you said, “They thought the price has also included customs duty,” that means that they thought that at some time in the past the price might have included customs duty, but maybe it doesn’t now.
Hi, Jamie
I thought that if in the main clause one of the past tenses is used then in the subordinate clause we mostly have to use one of the past tenses either (or would + the verb).
So, my question is: shouldn’t it be “they thought the prise had also included customs duty” ?
Thanks !
To your explanation,I think i can use Present Perfect too
Look at your own sentence, Alex. 
What would that sentence have been at the time “they” originally thought it?
Would it have been this:
“I think the price also includes customs duty.”
Or would it have been this:
“I think the price also included customs duty.”
(Or something else?)
[size=84](If you think I’m trying to get you to answer your own question, you’re absolutely right.)[/size] 8) 
.
[b]Here the whole text
“If the customs duty is not included,we won’t be able to compete with the other marks,besides ABC have demanded the last price and they have thought the price was included customs duty too”[/b]
If the customs duty is not included,we won’t be able to compete with the other vendors. Besides, ABC is demanding the last price, and they thought that price did include customs duty.
If you say “ABC is demanding the last price” this does not meet the meaning of the original text that I translated from.Its done in the past
Sounds like you’re leading me on, Amy
Well, I plump for “I think the price also includes customs duty”
Then, turning it into the past, “I thought the price also included customs duty”.
That is how I see it.
I would like to hear you out, if you please?
PS:
On second thought I think that maybe, if we’re talking about the past, we can use the second sentense
Speaker A: “I think the price also included customs cost”
Speaker B: “And I think it did not, but we won’t find out until we look at the bill”
What do you think?
Volcano, please do us a favor and tell us what language you are translating from. You’re insisting on wrong tenses based on the original language. If you let us know what language the original text is in, we might be able to pinpoint what your problem is.
Please realize that correct English verb tenses do not depend on the verb tenses of other languages.
Alex, with this sequence of tenses, you often have the option of using the present tense when the second clause involves something that is always true or is still true.
“Water boils at 215°.”
“Wait a minute! I thought water boiled at 212°.” (Always true.)
or, “I thought water boils at 212°.” (Always true.)
“The price doesn’t include tax.”
“We thought the price included tax.” (At the time.)
or, “We thought the price includes tax.” (Always true.)
“The price didn’t include tax.”
“We thought the price included tax.” (More for when you’re picturing things at the time the situation was going on.)
or, “We thought the price had included tax.” (More for when you’re picturing things after the situation has finished.)
[b][i]I have seen a clause on the wall street journal
Companies have complained for years that foreign competitors had an unfair advantage getting business in developing nations…[/i][/b]
And?