We said we never did that

Question

Can one use:1) We both made love to someone we had never seen before and we both lied to each other right afterwards and said we never did that.instead of:2) We both made love to someone we had never seen before and we both lied to each other right afterwards and said we had never done that.1 could mean that we said that we generally never did that kind of thing but given the context that would probably be a bit strange (although possible, I suppose). However, I have the feeling that 1 cannot be used instead of 2.I heard a sentence very much like 1 in a film.Gratefully,Navi..

GPY · Accepted Answer

(1) could be talking about general behaviour (and in formal English it would have to be), but if it's colloquial dailogue I think it may mean "... and said we hadn't (done that)", i.e. hadn't done it on that specific occasion. In this interpretation, "never" is a kind of colloquial intensifier, not a temporal quantifier.

Navitasan · Answer

Thank you very much GPY for all your kind replies.

I see what you mean. And it could have that meaning as well!

I think in that seen 'never' really meant 'never' though. I should have provided more context. My apologies.

They had *** together without knowing each other, and then each told the other that they had never done anything like that before. Later on, she confessed that that had been a lie. She was pretty sure the guy had lied as well. This was her 'confession'. Each of them had said to the other that this was their first 'one-night-stand'. The girl had lied and she confessed to it with a sentence similar to 1. She assumed that the guy had lied as well (we never learn if he had or not). So she said

1) We both made love to someone we had never seen before (ie. to each other) and we both lied to each other right afterwards and said we never did that.

I think 'we never did that' could be interpreted both ways here: as a colloquial substitute for 'had done that' or meaning 'we did not to that kind of thing as a rule').

Gratefully,
Navi.

CalifJim · Answer

navitasanI think 'we never did that' could be interpreted both ways here: as a colloquial substitute for 'had done that' or meaning 'we did not to that kind of thing as a rule')

It can be interpreted in both ways, but only the first interpretation ('had done') would come to mind immediately for a native speaker (AmE). In my opinion, it would take some lengthy and complicated reasoning with an average American to convince him that your second interpretation was even possible.

CJ

GPY · Answer

navitasan1) We both made love to someone we had never seen before (ie. to each other) and we both lied to each other right afterwards and said we never did that. I think 'we never did that' could be interpreted both ways here: as a colloquial substitute for 'had done that' or meaning 'we did not to that kind of thing as a rule').

The context is different from the one I originally envisaged. With the new information, I understand "we never did that" to mean "we never did/do it generally", obviously with the exception of that one occasion.

We said we never did that

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