Relative clauses: Remember when I first heard you speaking English I imagined...

[K1ngk0ng]

Dear respected teachers,

I am so confused with the use of non-defining relative clauses, especially in a compound sentence that I am not qualified to evaluate if I am correct or not. Suppose I have the following sentence:

Remember when I first heard you speaking English I imagined a Russian girl who did it, which I ever once told you.

Could anyone please answer my following questions to make it clear?

1) Is the above sentence grammatically correct? If it is, could you please tell me which subject/object is the relative pronoun "which" used for?

2) If the above sentence is not correct, please correct it for me. How can I say if I want to express all following ideas

- I heard you speaking English
- I imagined a Russian girl who speaks English
- I ever once told you about that

Many thanks, KK

[Morteza]

Hi,
I think it's correct.
Morteza

[Kitosdad]

1) Is the above sentence grammatically correct? ........ NO.

2) If the above sentence is not correct, please correct it for me. How can I say if I want to express all following ideas

- I heard you speaking English..... This is acceptable.
- I imagined a Russian girl who speaks English.... This is confusing.
- I ever once told you about that ...... This is rubbish.

"When I first heard you speaking English, it reminded me of a Russian girl who spoke English exactly as you do."

"I think I told you about her once." / "I think I once told you about her."
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Morteza]

Hi Bill,
Please study this example:
Remember when I heard you speaking English I imagined a Russian girl who did it.I already told you this.
Remember .................................................................................................. ,which I already told you.
Which="the fact that when ... ". I think it is a correct sentence,don't you?
Many thanks,
Morteza

[Alan]

Hi Morteza,

Let me suggest:

I remember when I first heard you speaking English, I imagined it was a Russian girl speaking, which I once told you about.

'Which' refers back to the whole of the incident referred to in the previous sentence. Having said that, I'm not happy with the sentence as a whole. I would say:

When I first heard you speaking English, I imagined it was a Russian girl speaking. Do you remember me telling you once about that?

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Morteza]

Hi Dear Alan,
Nice to meet you here again and thank you so much for making it quite clear.
Best regards,
Morteza

[SkiIucK]

Hi,

What is the difference between "I remember when I first heard you speaking English..." and "I remember when I first heard you speak English..."?

Many thanks.

[Alan]

Hi,

The simple answer is 'not a lot of difference'. By using 'speaking' you are emphasizing the actual process.

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Noren]

Dear all the English masters,
All of you are right in your own way. Just remember " Everyone makes mistakes " and "No one is error-free no matter what. Wishing you all the best in your respective fields.

Noren Lee
_________________
A person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

[Noren]

Respected Kitos Sir,
It's nice to see you with your dogs. I can see a couple of dogs. Is it correct to say that; the dog in the right side is different from/ than the one in your left. Which one is mostly used "from or than"? Thanks a lot.

Noren Lee
_________________
A person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

[K1ngk0ng]

Hi Alan,

Is it correct when my teacher have told me as follows:

- To hear someone speak English means you witness the action of someone's speaking English from the beginning to the end, while to hear someone speaking English means you witness the action while it's happening.

- This is also applied to the verb `to see`.

If the idea is correct, should it be a big difference, not a small one, Alan?

Many thanks,

KK

[Alan]

Hi KK,

I have no wish to disagree with your teacher but I must refer you to my message on 'context'. Your teacher is quite right in a certain context but you have to know whether 'speak' and 'speaking' are simply about 'talking'. If you want to say that you went to a lecture and you heard Mr Smith give a lecture, then you would say: I heard Mr Smith speak yesterday at the Festival Hall. But again you must know in what context or situation the verb is used and that's why I have made the point to day here:

Context

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Passive Voice

[K1ngk0ng]

Thank you!