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When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first'



 
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When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first' #1 (permalink) Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:02 am   When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first'
 

1-When I was first married, I used to smoke.
2-When I was married first, I used to smoke.

Which of the above means:

a-In the beginning of my married life, I used to smoke.
and which:
b-When I was married for the first time, I used to smoke.

navi
navi
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When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first' #2 (permalink) Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:47 am   When I was 'first married' vs. 'married first'
 

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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