until now

Question

Please advise if the following two sentences have the same meaning:I've never thought of it .I've never thought of it until now.Thanks.

Inchoateknowledge · Accepted Answer

to me they are one

Anonymous · Answer

I feel there is some difference between the two:

"I've never thought of it." has an implication that, even up to this very moment, I have not thought of it. But "I've never thought of it until now." indicates that I have not thought of it before but I started to think of it just now.

I am not sure if I am right.

Marius Hancu · Answer

AnonymousI feel there is some difference between the two:

"I've never thought of it." has an implication that, even up to this very moment, I have not thought of it. But "I've never thought of it until now." indicates that I have not thought of it before but I started to think of it just now.

I am not sure if I am right.

I think you are.

BarbaraPA · Answer

They could be the same. Obviously, if someone says "Picture pink elephants skydiving from WWII-era airplanes into a field of lima beans" you are THEN thinking of it, even if you never did before. So I could say "I've never pictured that," or "I've never pictured that until now!" and they mean the same - some external source brought this thought to me, and in that case, they are the same.

If you think of something on your own - a solution to a problem, for example - and someone says "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" You say "But I never thought of it until now."

If someone else thinks of a solution and says "Why didn't you just do that?" You say "Because I never thought of it."

until now

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