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Ana poland Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

If I’da known you couldn’t play any better...

Hi,
I stumbled upon this interesting sentence in a tv show.
Setting: girl is playing the keyboard  (badly), guy walks in and says:

'If I’da known you couldn’t play any better than that, I wouldn’t have bought it home.'

It seems to me that the negation would normally go with the first verb e.i.

'If I hadn't known you could play any better than that...'

It is interesting to me as an English learner what brought about this transfer? 
  

Top answer

ana poland It is interesting to me as an English learner what brought about this transfer? The intended sense. There is a difference in meaning between: If I had known you couldn't play well ..

— Fivejedjon

  • ana poland It is interesting to me as an English learner what brought about this transfer?
  • The intended sense.
  • There is a difference in meaning between: If I had known you couldn't play well ..
  • ) and If I hadn't known you could play well ..
  • )
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3 Answers
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ana polandIt is interesting to me as an English learner what brought about this transfer?
The intended sense.

There is a difference in meaning between:
If I had known you couldn't play well ... (= You cannot play well; I did not know this.)

and

If I hadn't known you could play well ...(= You can play well; I did kn
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Ok, thank you, but the thing is the guy did know the girl could play better. He had heard her play before and she played well before. This is why this sentence puzzled me a little.
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ana polandOk, thank you, but the thing is the guy did know the girl could play better. He had heard her play before and she played well before. This is why this sentence puzzled me a little.
Then 'If I’d known you couldn’t play any better than that, I wouldn’t have bought it home' is a strange thing to say.
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