Anonymous  +  378168 Mon, 11 Jun 07 08:34 PM Hi, He screamed when he saw a snake. He screamed once he saw a snake. Are the two sentences the same meaning? Thanks. Anonymous

	Grammar Geek  +  378189 Mon, 11 Jun 07 09:31 PM Something about the second sentence doesn't feel natural. Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!

	Grammar Geek  +  378521 Tue, 12 Jun 07 02:30 PM Not exactly. The second one is just a natural way of saying what happened. He was walking along, minding his own business, and suddenly he screamed when he saw a snake. The first one sounds more like an answer to a question. When did he scream? He screamed as soon as he saw a snake. (And in that case, it sound like your listener should already be aware of the fact that there was a snake, so you'd say "the snake.") What did he do when he first saw the snake? He screamed as soon as he saw the snake, and then got a stick to encourage it to get off the path. Perhaps there's just something in the first one that makes it sound like your listener should already know about the snake, so saying "a snake" as though there just happened to be one snake of many wandering around doesn't sound right to me. Grammar Geek

	Grammar Geek  +  378644 Tue, 12 Jun 07 07:47 PM Yes, all of those are fine, and they all mean the same thing. Grammar Geek