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Yogi2005 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Describing the past

0 Hello, 02br
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00Please , could you tell me if the sentences are correct and if not how to correct them? 02br
00I'm especially interested in tenses usage. 02br
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001) I played this game for the first time when I was twelve or thirteen, I can't remember exactly. It was nothing more than I had expected. 02br
00or 02br
002) It was nothing more than I could have expected. 02br
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00thank you. 0-
  

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11 Answers
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0 Re: I played this game for the first time when I was twelve or thirteen, I can't remember exactly. It was nothing more than I had expected. 02br
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00I would correct your sentences like this:- 02br
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00a) "I can't remember exactly, but I played this game for the first time when I was twelve or thirteen. It was not much more than WHAT I HAD EXPECTED
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0 Hello Temico 02br
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00I don't say 'nothing more than what someone expects' is a wrong expression, but I think 'nothing more than someone expects' may be acceptable. 02br
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00[Google's Hits] 02br
00"nothing more than I expected" : 206 versus "nothing more than what I expected": 106. 02br
00"more than I expected" : 121000 ver
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0 Hello Yogi 02br
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00Further to the contributions so far: 02br
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00I'd add 'when' to the first part – 02br
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001. I played this game for the first time when I was twelve or thirteen – I can't remember 01b00when02b00 exactly. 02br
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00Then add one of these: 02br
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0 To paco2004, 02br
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00Tell me honestly, do you REALLY know the difference between, 02br
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00a) "It was nothing more than I expected." 02br
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00and 02br
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00b) "It was nothing more than WHAT I HAD expected."?? 02br
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00If you do, please re-read my reply to the previous post! 0
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0 The tendency these days does seem to be to leave out 'what', which here functions as 'that which'. Cf. 02br
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001. It was no more than he deserved. 02br
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00Interesting. 02br
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00MrP 02br
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0 To MrPedantic, 02br
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00Re: It was nothing more than I'd expected. 02br
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00Can you please tell me if "I'd" in your above sentence is short for "I had"? If it is so, can you please tell me whether or not, "It was nothing more than I had expected." = "It was nothing more than WHAT I had expected."? 0-
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0 Hello Temico 02br
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00I'm afraid you misunderstood my posting. Please re-read this; 01blockquote
00I don't say 'nothing more than what someone expects' is a wrong expression, but I think 'nothing more than someone expects' may be acceptable.12blockquote
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00I didn't say anything like your sentence (a), i.e., "It was nothi
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0 To MrPedantic, 02br
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00If we are going to follow "tendency", we might as well revert to SLANG!! 0-
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0 Hello Temico 02br
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00Yes, "I'd" in my post = "I had"; and I would say that "it was nothing more than I had expected" is an ellipsis of "it was nothing more than what I had expected". 02br
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00Despite my previous post, I have a feeling there's another, more idiomatic way of saying what Yogi wants to say. Unfortunately I can't think what it is. 02
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