"You didn't really think that happens in clinical psychology, did you?"
2007-11-13 00:29:34 · 4 answers · asked by crazy_juice_mmm_yum 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
if there is one please revise it for me.
2007-11-13 00:30:04 · update #1
Either "you DON'T" and then "DO you?" at the end, or "that HAPPENED". What's wrong is the sentence contains two different tenses; past and present; it doesn't work.
2007-11-13 00:38:47 · answer #1 · answered by thebabelinkin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's nothing wrong with it. The fact that it contains two tenses means it simply conforms to logic: I'm asking about an opinion you held in the past on a topic that is 'always true' - what happens in clinical psychology.
If you change 'you didn't think...' to 'you wouldn't think...' you are changing the meaning from a question meaning 'Boy, did you REALLY believe that?' to 'Boy, you really wouldn't expect that, but it's true!'
Messing with the word order also changes the emphasis. 'You didn't really think that happens...?' sounds incredulous - could you be that dumb? But 'you really didn't think that happened' means 'yeah, you genuinely thought this didn't happen, huh?
2007-11-13 12:37:27 · answer #2 · answered by vilgessuola 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Umm..In my opinion, I would use the conditional to be honest - "You wouldn't really think that happens in clincical psychology, would you?"
2007-11-13 08:37:26 · answer #3 · answered by viv 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would swap the words "didn't really think" with "really didn't think" so that the verb parts are adjacent.
2007-11-13 08:38:00 · answer #4 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋