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Kooyeen Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

If only you knew how much I loved you

0 Hi,02br
00I'm wondering about this sentence (heard in a song):02br
02br
01b00If only you knew how much 01u00I loved02u00 you.02br
02br
02b00Can that "I loved" be present in meaning? I think it could refer to the past ("I once loved you"), but also to the present ("I love you now").02br
00Would it be ok to say "If only you knew how much I love you"? I think there would be a difference:02br
01b00If only you knew how much 01u00I loved02u00 you.02b00 (You don't know how much I love you, and I wish you knew that. Could be used in a song, for example)02br
01b00If only you knew how much 01u00I love02u00 you.02b00 (I love you more than you think, I love you so much and now I'm telling you)02br
02br
00Any comments? Thank you in advance 050010id1
  

Top answer

0 Only 01b 00love02b 00 works IMO for present time. 0-

— Marius Hancu

  • 0 Only 01b 00love02b 00 works IMO for present time.
  • 0-
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12 Answers
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0 Only 01b00love02b00 works IMO for present time. 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Marius Hancu12cite10Only 11b10love12b10 works IMO for present time. 12br
12blockquote
10 01b01font00I have to agree.02font02b00 0-
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0 Thanks, but...02br
00how strange, we usually say 01i00"If only I knew where she lived..."02i00 (I don't know where she lives) and 01i00"If only I knew what this was..."02i00 (I don't know what this is), how comes this doesn't work with "love"?02br
02br
00Thanks 050010id1
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0Is the verb "to love" an exception then? Are there other exceptions? Thanks 050010id1
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0 01blockquote
00Can that "I loved" be present in meaning? 12blockquote
10Yes. In fact, that's my first take on it. It's just a backshift of 01i00love02i00 under the influence of 01i00knew02i00.02br
01blockquote
00Would it be ok to say "If only you knew how much I love you"?12bloc
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0Thank you Jim, you saved my brain from melting. 05002br
00Now, I'd like to ask a few more questions to complete this thread...02br
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01b00If only you knew how much I loved you.02b02br
02br
00You said that "loved" can refer to the present. Can it also refer to the past, or is it more usual to use the past perfect "had loved
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0 Use 01i01b00If only02b02i00 to say that we would like things to be different.02br
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01i01b00If only + past02b02i00 can be used to talk about the present.02br
02br
01b01i00If only + past perfect02i02b00 is used to talk something about the past.0
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0 Eeuw! Melted brains are so unsightly!02br
02br
01blockquote
00You said that "loved" can refer to the present. Can it also refer to the past12blockquote
10Yes. There is always an end to the backshift process -- the point where you run out of tenses that refer to an even more distant point in time! In 01u00this02u0
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0 Thank you very much Jim.01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite12br
11i11font10If only you had known12font10 how much I loved you.12i12br
12br
12blockquote
10Yes, I know that structure. That structure is ok (we just need one past perfect), but "know" refer
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0 I was asking about "know" in the present and only "love" in the past. 01font00OK, I understand.02font00 I don't really know if I understood your answer, I think you said that it would be fine to say 01i01b00"If only you knew (now) how much I loved you (in the past)"02b02i00 01font0
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