It Ends When…

It Ends When†¦ It Ends When It Ends When By Maeve Maddox A reader is puzzled by a line in a movie: While watching The Bourne Ultimatum, I observed a CIA officer saying It ends when weve won . [I’m] a bit confused with this construction as it does not indicate future though the context of sentence [indicates that] the officer is talking about some time in future. If the statement stood alone, one would expect the verb in one of the clauses to be in future tense: â€Å"The killing will end when we have won.† However, the statement â€Å"It ends when we’ve won† refers to a previous sentence that contains or implies the antecedent of the pronoun it. The example from the movie is the second half of this exchange: Pamela Landy: Noah, shes one of us. You start down this path, where does it end? Noah Vosen: It ends when weve won. â€Å"It ends when† + present perfect is a common idiom in such contexts as these: Each week we watch/review 2 films. When will it all end? It ends when we’ve seen all the movies. Affordability doesn’t end at the bottom of our pockets.  It ends when we’ve counted all the costs.   The weekend course starts at 2 pm on Friday and 9 am on Saturday and Sunday. It ends when we’ve covered the material. â€Å"It ends when† can also be followed by present tense: All right: where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right and who is dead. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Types of LanguagePrecedent vs. PrecedenceEnglish Grammar 101: Sentences, Clauses and Phrases