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Are these correct? What do they mean?

1. I was going to get it when I get the money. (Does this mean I was going to get it when I have the money in the future?)
2. I was going to get it when I got the money. (Two past events?)

3. I was going to get it when I get home. (I was going to get it when I go home today? (You're not home yet. ) )
4. I was going to get it when I got home. (Two past events?)

Thanks.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

jack112,

Essentially, this is the same question twice, and I'm uncomfortable with so many "get"s, so I'm going to use a third version for purposes of illustration.

"I was going to buy the car when I got the money."

This is the most standard, usual, and neutral way of expressing the thought: "My intention was (at that time) to buy the car whenever the time might come that I had the money."

There is not even one event here, let alone two! There is only a past intention. The intention existed in the past.

The receiving of the money may or may not have happened at the time of the utterance.The buying of the car may or may not have happened at the time of utterance. All we know is that (because of the intention in the past) there was a past expectation that, at some time after the intention existed, I was to receive some money. The statement says that once the receiving of the money occurred, the buying of the car would take place. Both are events in "a possible world". Both are hypothetical events. Both are in the future from the time the intention existed, the buying even farther in the future than the receiving of the money, of course. But, as I mentioned above, neither is necessarily in the future or in the past measured from the time of utterance.
____________

I cannot properly contextualize "I was going to buy the car when I get the money" to make a great deal of sense of it. I find it anomalous because of the contradiction between a tense (past simple) which is the "past exclusive (of the present)" and a present tense. Nevertheless, I think this sentence may be equivalent, in the minds of some speakers, to "I have had for some time the intention of buying the car when I get the money". Thus, this sentence, as opposed to the one discussed previously, makes the commitment that neither the receiving of money nor the buying of the car has yet taken place at the time of the utterance.

___________

We'll see if others have another way of looking at it.

CJ

Jack112 · Answer

Are they correct? If not, why? What do these mean?

1. If that was the case, how would I know who got to go first?
2. If that was the case, how would I know who gets to go first?

Thanks.

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