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 #17 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 18:30 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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Absolutely right, Milanya, but in a phrase like "he came to my dream " - I really doubt it's meant to be a series of images, ideas, emotions etc. On my opinion it's exactly that dream during a night sleep.
I'm sure that in every language there may be several meanings of one word. By the way, may I know what your native language is?
Maryann |
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 Maryann
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| #18 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 18:56 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| Maryann wrote: |
By the way, may I know what your native language is?
Maryann |
I sent you a private message.
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con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. |
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Milanya
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| #19 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 19:00 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| Milanya wrote: |
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con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.
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I could read you now.
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English |
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Gray
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| #20 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 19:06 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| Maryann wrote: |
| e.g. I haven't seen him for ages till yesterday, when our eyes met in the shop. We stood still for a while, then I turned around and walked away. That night he came into my dream and said that it wasn't his fault in what had happened 9 years ago. |
That context is quite clear. But could we use the tense this way --
"I haven't seen him for ages till yesterday, when our eyes met in the shop."
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English |
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Gray
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| #21 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 19:40 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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Yeah, Gray, my statement contravene with rules as to the Present Perfect and Past Simple usage. Honestly, I don't know now ...
From one hand - the action takes part in the past, but the idiom "haven't seen you for ages" cannot be used othervise (I mean with Past Simple). "Till yesterday" just doesn't refer to "I haven't seen him for ages", I think I should have put a coma after "ages". |
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Maryann
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| #22 (permalink) Wed Feb 18, 2009 21:02 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| Maryann wrote: |
| "Till yesterday" just doesn't refer to "I haven't seen him for ages", I think I should have put a coma after "ages". |
"I haven't seen him for ages, till yesterday, when our eyes met in the shop."
I am still not clear about the combination -- 'have' and 'till yesterday' :? And I doubt whether we could separate them by comma without losing much of the meaning. Can we have something innovative here?
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English |
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Gray
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| #23 (permalink) Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:28 am Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| Maryann wrote: |
| Cerberus™ wrote: |
I agree with Milanya.
The other phrases mentioned are either colloquial or require odd context.
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Hey, Cerberus. Why do you mind colloquial speech? Besides what's wrong with the variant "He came into my dream"? I'd like to know your opinion. As far as I know this variant is widely used and sounds quite good.
Thanks in advance,
Maryann
P.S. If you don't mind, record, please, your voice here. |
Hello Maryann, I'm afraid I can't record since I have no microphone. Now, I don't mind colloquial speech, as long as it's used in a colloquial setting. To someone who is learning English, regular speech is perhaps a better point to start at. The usual way to express a thought.
When I mentioned "odd context" perhaps I should have said "unusual context": your expression may be used when something other than simply your dreaming of someone is happening. If you wanted to accentuate a sense of movement when someone came to you in a dream, you could do this with a metaphor by using "to come to/into".
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Wrong: "I haven't seen him for ages, until yesterday, when I met him in a shop".
This seems impossible. The present perfect means here that the verb has been happening including right now (sometimes just until now).
Right: "I hadn't seen him for ages, until yesterday, when I met him in a shop.
-or-
Right: "I haven't seen him for ages, except yesterday, when I met him in a shop." |
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Cerberus™
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| #24 (permalink) Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:25 am Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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Yeah, thanks, Cerberus, I got my mistake.
Maryann |
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Maryann
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| #25 (permalink) Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:46 pm Can we say 'he came in my dream'? |
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| he came in my dreams |
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Qadirttt
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