reith

nice. thanks a lot.

actually my suggested sentence was: "I told them that I wanted a break from work but they gave me more of it". I'd missed "I told them that". sorry.

@Cerberus but doesn't the last sentence ("they gave me more of it") emphasis on unexpectancy with regard to "I told them that I wanted a break from work" instead of "I wanted a break from work" with the comma?

basically the previous one without the comma

[s]wanted a break from work but you gave me more of it[/s] -> I wanted a break from work but they gave me more of it

oh sorry. It was bad copy past

Unfortunately, my punctuation book didn't go deep into compound sentences and reported speech, and there are tons of comma rules on the internet.on

I think the version without comma is better because the other version can convey the sentence after but is parallel to "I told" not "I wanted"...

wanted a break from work but they gave me more of it

or

I told them that I wanted a break from work, but they gave me more of it

Now, I want to tell this story to my friend. should I write:

I'm now back in the office. I go and see him and say: "I wanted a break from work, but you gave me more of it"

consider this situation. I was on holiday, but my boss ruined me by sending me tasks to me.

I'm trying to solve an ambiguity by punctuation, but I'm not sure it works this way or no

Hi

@tchrist Excellent, thank you!

oops, sorry for typos :\

maybe I should have asked it in the forum..

And, can I use that second construct when the action is less likely to be my choice? for example, "I know if I were to fail in my exams, the scorn would be on me, not the crowded environment"

@tchrist Thank you! Just to be clear, does the second example says there was weaker probability of seeing parent in case of having gone home? (for some reason I feel the second example puts more emphasis on his mental relation between action and result, while in the first one, he emphasis is that he didn't go home)

I've been hit by this several times so far and every time I think something is wrong with me.

Thank you so much for confirming this..

and the expression of level of probability will be lost

the problem is both of those conditionals now map to one syntax

I hope that make sense :D

time passes, and I don't really know, neither care what were the outcome of those conditions, but I want tell I had such thoughts in the past

Let assume I have two different conditionals in my mind one is more certain, I use first conditional another is less possible, I use second conditional for this one.

regarding possibility, what I understand is possibility is subjective to some point in paste and somehow I have this feeling that being in future should not change this extent of certainty that I once had..

@Cerberus Thanks.

Let's assume the probability of seeing my family on my visit to home, is low. In that case I'd say: "If I went home, I'd see my family". Now how to convert it to past? "I knew If I went home, I'd see my family" again?

What confuses me is the combination of of past tense and would+simple infinitive that looks like second conditional but my original conditional was first conditional. These two forms differ in level of certainty and probability.

Hi. I wonder how to write a future conditional in past, it just doesn't feel quite right. Take this sentence: "If I go home tomorrow, I'll see my family". The week after, I want mention that fact again. I think it should be: "I knew If I went home the next day, I'd see my family". Is this correct?

I take it with a grain of salt. But it often goes like that, it catches my problem and then I just realize/recall why I was wrong.

Yes, of course. I've already learned a lot about articles thanks to Grammarly but it sometimes makes weird suggestion especially in more complex sentences. I often try consulting Ngrams too, but for situations like this, it isn't much of help either.

So I had an incorrect mixed tense too. Thanks a bunch!

I guess the reason that when is wrong, is that we don't use it as an adverb really there.. am I right?

Persian

"but the agonizing moment that I've been through is still fresh in my mind" this is my whole sentence. does which work too?

Yeah, but it's most accessible thing I can reach without feeling too bothering :)

does the expression "the moments when I've been through" make sense? I think "that" works fine, but I tend to use "which" more often, which Grammarly complains. I think "when" sounds weird but it seems all right to Grammarly.

Hi

Since my native language is almost totally ignorant about definite articles, I think and reason a lot about them but sometimes it just harms :D

Yes. I've already come up with some kind of rule. Maybe I made it myself, but often it works. I see the noun and surrounding words and consider how much "specialty" I'm going to add to word in my context. But it seems I failed with my rule here. I was under the impression that I'm "customizing" or narrowing down life meaning in my sentence so it needed "the"

Thanks. Articles look really intuitive and hard to explain if not impossible.

BTW, i thought i should use "the" before it. for example in this sentence: ".. a chance to acclimatize myself with the American everyday life" but Grammarly suggested "the" is redundant.. Is Grammarly right?

I got it. thanks!

@Cerberus thanks

Thanks. I didn't get your alternative. I said "American everyday life" too. Did you mean "Everyday life in America" maybe?

(i know it's semantically ... weird. as not all Americans have one routine, but I'm asking just about grammar)