#2 (permalink) Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:47 am When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first' |
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1 = a
Sentence 2 means, "When I was the first person who married, I used to smoke." It sounds as if there's a group of people waiting to be married every week or every year, and when the speaker happened to be the first person who got married that time, he used to stop and have a cigarette. It sounds like he did this many times. Sentence 2 is a very strange sentence.
If you want the meaning in b, you need to say something like, "The first time I was married, I used to smoke," or better, "At the time of my first marriage, I used to smoke." |
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Jamie (K) I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006 Posts: 6552 Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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