temico  +  98949 Fri, 13 May 05 02:05 PM Re: "I didn't see Tom .... yesterday" You have a point there, Abbie. However, how about this sentence, "I haven't seen him before." Is it correct? Or should it be, "I didn't see him before?" temico Joined on Thu, Apr 21 2005 Full Member 274

	just the trout  +  98971 Fri, 13 May 05 03:35 PM I've never seen Tony Blair cited as an authority for accurate linguistic usage before... I've never seen Mr Pedantic cited as an authority for accurate linguistic usage before... just the trout Joined on Mon, May 2 2005 New Member 14

	julielai  +  98992 Fri, 13 May 05 04:38 PM Prescott's grammar = (Bush + Quayle)². LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL! That will be my biggest laugh of the day. julielai Joined on Sun, Oct 24 2004 Senior Member 3,829 Just another blogger (http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/julie-lai)

	pieanne  +  98993 Fri, 13 May 05 04:41 PM :s Can someone explain, please? pieanne Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 South of France ...But I'm Belgian! Veteran Member 7,517 I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

	julielai  +  98994 Fri, 13 May 05 04:50 PM Hi Pieanne, Bush misspeaks and Quayle misspells (like tomatoe) Make a quadratic equation out of that... 2 Bush square + 3 Quayle square + the unknown British constant (maybe???) = Prescott Does my algebra seem right to you guys? julielai

	pieanne  +  98995 Fri, 13 May 05 04:59 PM OK, I didn't know about Quayle! LOL, indeed Thanks, Julie pieanne

	julielai  +  98997 Fri, 13 May 05 05:02 PM I've never seen Mr Pedantic cited as an authority for accurate linguistic usage before... Please avoid personal comments/attacks in the forum. If nothing else, this sort of comments seems to indicate that the poster is unable to defeat the other party's line of argument (thus resorting to personal comments). julielai

	abbie1948  +  99037 Fri, 13 May 05 09:07 PM If you wish to say that a person is completely unknown to you, you would say: "I haven't seen him before" (i.e. I've never seen him in my life) If you wish to say that a person was not around before a specific time, you would say: "I didn't see temico before the party" (i.e. I am acquainted with temico, but I didn't see him on this occasion.) abbie1948 Joined on Thu, Mar 24 2005 England Senior Member 2,657 Hope that helps. Abbie

	paco2004  +  99056 Fri, 13 May 05 10:15 PM Hello Temico "I've seen you somewhere before" is a common phrase. I think English "before" should include "now" when it stands alone. This is a bit confusing to me, because the Japanese equivalent to "before" excludes "now". paco paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.