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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
No matter what
Hello, what do you think are the differences between:
1) No matter what I said, it wouldn't matter.
2) No matter what I said, it wouldn't have mattered.
3) No matter what I said, it didn't matter.
I've made them up and I'm sorry about the repetition of the word "matter", I just would like to hear an opinion from a grammatical point of view, not on the choice of words.
My general question is: if they are grammatically correct, do they all refer solely to the past or can any one of them be used in a hypothetical situation? To me, the last one is the most straighforward and means more or less "Every word I said didn't matter.". The first one sounds to me like "No matter what I say, it won't matter." put in reported speech. But what about the second one? It looks to me like some strange combination of tenses but I would say it refers to the past: "No matter what I said (in the past), it wouldn't have mattered (in the past)." even though I'm not sure if it's correct. Can anyone help? Thanks a lot in advance.
1) No matter what I said, it wouldn't matter.
2) No matter what I said, it wouldn't have mattered.
3) No matter what I said, it didn't matter.
I've made them up and I'm sorry about the repetition of the word "matter", I just would like to hear an opinion from a grammatical point of view, not on the choice of words.
My general question is: if they are grammatically correct, do they all refer solely to the past or can any one of them be used in a hypothetical situation? To me, the last one is the most straighforward and means more or less "Every word I said didn't matter.". The first one sounds to me like "No matter what I say, it won't matter." put in reported speech. But what about the second one? It looks to me like some strange combination of tenses but I would say it refers to the past: "No matter what I said (in the past), it wouldn't have mattered (in the past)." even though I'm not sure if it's correct. Can anyone help? Thanks a lot in advance.
Top answer
In my opinion English is somewhat inexact in things like these. I'll give you my opinion but I do hope others will voice their opinions as well. I'm not at all sure everybody understands the sentences in the same way, especially as no context is given.
- In my opinion English is somewhat inexact in things like these.
- I'll give you my opinion but I do hope others will voice their opinions as well.
- I'm not at all sure everybody understands the sentences in the same way, especially as no context is given.
- Context is often of paramount importance in English.
- I agree with you on No.
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1 Answers
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In my opinion English is somewhat inexact in things like these. I'll give you my opinion but I do hope others will voice their opinions as well. I'm not at all sure everybody understands the sentences in the same way, especially as no context is given. Context is often of paramount importance in English.
I agree with you on No. 3. No. 1 could in some circumstances be fairly synonymous wi
I agree with you on No. 3. No. 1 could in some circumstances be fairly synonymous wi
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