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Mack&Mack Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
If I knew what I know now ~ VS If I had known what I know now~
Hi, helpers.
I came across a sentence, saying "If I knew what I know now, I'd listen more carefully."
What makes me confused is that when you say "If I knew what I know now ~", for me, it sounds like you don't know now what you know now. I'm a non-native speaker with no sense of right or wrong for correct usages. However, what I learned was like this:
1) If I knew it, I would be better. : this means I now don't know something so that I can't be better now.
2) If I had known it, I would have been better. : this means I didn't know it some time in the past so that I couldn't be better at that time.
Could anybody help me with this?
I came across a sentence, saying "If I knew what I know now, I'd listen more carefully."
What makes me confused is that when you say "If I knew what I know now ~", for me, it sounds like you don't know now what you know now. I'm a non-native speaker with no sense of right or wrong for correct usages. However, what I learned was like this:
1) If I knew it, I would be better. : this means I now don't know something so that I can't be better now.
2) If I had known it, I would have been better. : this means I didn't know it some time in the past so that I couldn't be better at that time.
Could anybody help me with this?
Top answer
M&M, it seems to me that this quote suffers from a missing word. It is normally expressed as If I knew then what I know now... It means that I would have done things differently in the past if I had known X then as I know X now.
- M&M, it seems to me that this quote suffers from a missing word.
- It is normally expressed as If I knew then what I know now...
- It means that I would have done things differently in the past if I had known X then as I know X now.
- As for your #1 and #2: they are both fine structures: Conditionals II and III.
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5 Answers
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M&M, it seems to me that this quote suffers from a missing word. It is normally expressed as If I knew then what I know now.... It means that I would have done things differently in the past if I had known X then as I know X now.
As for your #1 and #2: they are both fine structures: Conditionals II and III.
As for your #1 and #2: they are both fine structures: Conditionals II and III.
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But even with "then", shouldn't it be "... I'd have listened more carefully"?
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And: If I had known then what I know now..., come to think of it.
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Happy new year! Thank you for your answers.
I'm sorry to say this but I don't have the book with me right now. I'm quite sure that I typed the sentence right. It's one of the writngs(?) in the format of poem in my self-English study book titled "something chicken soup"
I googled up on the expression and found this poem - or lyric.
If I knew what I
I'm sorry to say this but I don't have the book with me right now. I'm quite sure that I typed the sentence right. It's one of the writngs(?) in the format of poem in my self-English study book titled "something chicken soup"
I googled up on the expression and found this poem - or lyric.
If I knew what I
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