Suspiciously Specific Tense
"I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too."
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 includes any instance wherein a character picks up on something due to the past tense. A classic example is a Conviction by Contradiction situation where the suspect refers to a murder victim in the past tense when the suspect couldn't know the victim was dead. In some other cases, the speaker intends the listener to pick up on the implication.
Can be somewhat annoying because people say "was" without denoting anything happening in the past all the time - and appropriately so, as it expresses the imperfect tense, which can denote actions that have begun and are continuing - so when a character points it out, it seems like they have God knowledge about the plot and serve as a means to get into a tragic backstory about what happened to Elvis.
Comic Books
- In an issue of Spider-Man, an enforcer and a corrupt gym owner are talking about a boxer who wants to leave the gym.
Enforcer: "Mr. Chance has such promise."
Owner: "He HAD promise. Past tense." And then they plot to kill him.
Film
- In the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, during the confrontation with Shredder, the Big Bad implies that the Turtles' master is dead through the use of this trope:
Raphael: Where's Splinter?
Shredder: Ah, the rat! So it has a name...it had a name.
Leonardo: (getting pissed) You lie!
Shredder: (smiling evilly through his mask) Do I?
(Leo flies into a rage and attacks Shredder, but is immediately shut down)
- In the movie 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 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Spock refers to whales becoming extinct in the past tense. Gillian catches this.
- Are you sure it isn't time for another 'colorful metaphor'?
Literature
- In The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry accidentally reveals when Claire's mother will die on a jaunt to the past.
- 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. It is absolutely disgraceful. A woman of thirty not knowing the fundamentals of grammar!"
- In Dragon Flight, creel accidentally reveals that Shardas, presumed dead in the first book, is alive by telling another dragon, " why shouldn't I tell Shardas. He and I are friends." " Are?" she then has to tell all, but it works out for the best.
- At the beginning of Wyrd Sisters, the ghost of King Verence (who hasn't quite realized he's dead yet) takes offense at being hailed with a simple "Hello" by Death:
Verence: I am a king, mark you.
Death: Was.
Verence: Say again?
Death: I said "was". It's called the past tense. You'll soon get used to it.
- As stated below, someone who has recently had a loved one die can have trouble processing that information and adjusting verb tenses. In Pet Sematary (novel only, doesn't happen in the movie), Louis (a doctor) uses this, among other details of the conversation, to check Jud's mental functioning after his wife Norma dies suddenly. Jud's doing as well as can be expected, with no reason to worry about his mental health, Louis decides.
- In Lord of the Rings, Gandalf realizes Saruman isn't living in Orthanc after Treebeard uses words such as "was" and "dwelt" in a conversation about Saruman (though Saruman's departure was important enough that it would have been brought up anyways).
- More Suspiciously Specific Pronoun in The Thirteenth Tale when Vida starts saying "I" instead of referring to Adeline in the third person.
Live Action TV
- 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 event usually hasn'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.
- 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."
- In Lost where, moments before we saw Daniel get killed, Widmore says of him in the future, "He was my son, too." If we weren't too stunned by the paternity revelation to notice it, we knew Daniel was toast.
- Robin of Sherwood: 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.
- At a potential crime scene in 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. 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.
Theatre
- Life With Father:
Dr. Lloyd: Mrs. Day has been a tower of strength in the parish. Everyone liked her so much. Yes, she was a fine woman.
Father: I wish to God you wouldn't talk about Mrs. Day as if she were dead.
- Played with in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: "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 baking him into a pie, for which purposes he does still have the nice plump frame.
- In Cyrano De Bergerac, Roxane realizes Christian has just died when Cyrano slips and refers to him in the past tense.
Video Games
- In Space Quest IV, Roger Wilco meets his future son. Showing his father a volumetric display of his mother (i.e. Roger's future wife), Roger Jr. remarks "she was quite beautiful". When Roger Sr. presses on him about the word "was", the young man pleas that he cannot explain.
- A source of Memetic Mutation regarding the Super Smash Bros. 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.
Webcomics
Death Of Being Sat On By A Giant Frog: [Da Vinci] was a canny old bastard...
Head Death: Is a canny old bastard...
Western Animation
- On The Spectacular Spider-Man, Harry has found evidence that the Green Goblin was never his own Super-Powered Evil Side, despite having believed it himself:
Harry: ...At least...that's what we all thought was happening.
Peter: "Thought?" Past tense?
Real Life
- 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 up on her constant use of past tense and soon came to the correct conclusion that Susan had murdered her children.
- Mark Hacking called the police to report that his wife Lori had failed to return from her morning jog. Speaking to the press as he organized a search party, he made several incriminating statements such as, "I know I'm searching for someone who's hurt", and "If she's not there (in the park where she usually went for her run), then that means that the unimaginable happened." Already leery of his story, the police found it odd that he was jumping to such grim conclusions so early into the investigation and began to speculate that he already knew that the worst had happened to Lori. Sure enough, after several days, Hacking finally confessed to having killed his wife.