Which Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I'm lazy. sounds the most natural?

Question

Deleted user

8 Apr 2014

Question about English (US)

Which Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I'm lazy. or Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I was lazy. sounds the most natural?

I'm always lazy.
I' m not sure abou the sequence of tenses...

1

Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I'm lazy.
2

Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I was lazy.

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Answers

Deleted user

9 Apr 2014

Answer Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I'm lazy.

If you are making a factual statement "Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I'm lazy." is better
because "I'm lazy" is in the present tense(you were lazy then & now)
but "was lazy" is in the past tense(you were lazy then but maybe not now).

But if you are apologizing for not returning the books you should use "Sometimes I failed to return the books, because I was lazy." because then it would sound like you were lazy in the past but from now on you would return the books.

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