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#2 (permalink) Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:50 am Tense |
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Hi Quoc
There are a couple of things here:
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| Before, one friend of mine has ever learned his lesson |
. Do you mean (as I think you do): "Before yesterday/ Upto yesterday/ Previously, a friend of mine never learned his lessons/ never studied/ never did his school work. The expression "to learn his lesson" means to "realise the error of his ways", to "understand that what he was doing was wrong, a why he was punished for it".
| Quote: |
| But yesterday, he did that |
But yesterday he began to work/ or to study/ to do his lessons.
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| Yesterday was the first day when he learned his lesson. |
You don't need to say "when".
You can say: "Yesterday is the first day he studied at school" or "Yesterday is the first day he has studied at school since he started going there".
Remember "lessons" should be plural. It isn't just one lesson. |
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DOlier You can meet me at english-test.net

Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Ireland
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#3 (permalink) Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:29 am Tense |
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Thanks Sir,
In my mentioned situation: Before yesterday,upto yesterday, previously have the same meaning?
never learned his lessons,never studied, never did his school work have the same meaning?
If not, please tell me the difference.
Thanks Quoc |
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Tung Quoc I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 372
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#4 (permalink) Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:48 am Tenses |
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Hi,
You asked which of these two is correct:
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1.Yesterday was the first day when he learned his lesson. 2.Yesterday was the first day when he has learned his lesson. |
Let's follow the time through the sentence. Yesterday (past idea) was (past idea) learned (past idea). If you choose has learned, you are creating a clash of different times: then and up till then.
Let's simplify the sentence and convey the same idea: He did it yesterday for the first time/Yesterday he did it for the first time.
Alan _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 13890 Location: UK
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#5 (permalink) Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:41 am Tense |
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Hi Quoc,
Yes, those phrases do have the same meaning.
Art |
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DOlier You can meet me at english-test.net

Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Ireland
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| Stand-alone: How do they call such adjectives? | How can we learn expressions with 'make' and 'do'? |