Timeline for The difference between " I was not aware" and " I did not know"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 7, 2017 at 9:15 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglishLL/status/861147485653356544 | ||
| Apr 12, 2017 at 10:33 | comment | added | SovereignSun | Harmony (agreement, sequence, succession) of tenses is not always very logical but still the past tense is common and appropriate. When you say "I wasn't even aware it's his birthday today." it doesn't make sense.. Now you are already aware of it but you still deny this knowledge. "I wasn't even aware it was his birthday today." means that you weren't aware of it just a while ago, before someone told you or you've found it out. So now you are aware of it. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 9:51 | answer | added | Ronald Sole | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 8:04 | comment | added | Teacher KSHuang | Meanwhile, it's not uncommon for people to change tenses mid-sentence when speaking because our thinking changes tracks mid-sentence, but I agree with SovereignSun's comment that for me, personally, I would have used "...was his birthday..." for both sentences. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 8:02 | comment | added | Teacher KSHuang | And I would say that adding the "even" heightens the blaming feeling a little bit. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 8:00 | comment | added | Teacher KSHuang | For all intents and purposes, the two sentences mean the same, but the second one is a little more blameless; you hadn't said "Happy birthday" to the person because you hadn't known. The first one is slightly (ever so slightly) blaming someone as if someone should have let you know (made you aware) that it had been "his" birthday. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 7:14 | comment | added | olegst | @SovereignSun I'm not a native speaker, either, but I feel it depends on the context. If it's too late and you're notified post factum, then I'd say was, if you're being invited to the upcoming party today, then I'd say is. Let's wait for a native speaker's comment, though. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 7:09 | comment | added | SovereignSun | @olegst Somehow I feel it should be: "I wasn't even aware (that) it was his birthday today." and "I didn't know (that) it was his birthday today." but I'm a non-native speaker. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:56 | history | edited | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1 character in body; added 1 character in body
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| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:52 | comment | added | olegst | A similar question was asked on English Stackexchange: english.stackexchange.com/questions/21850/aware-vs-know | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:51 | comment | added | olegst | @SovereignSun It would be best if you gave correct versions. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:36 | comment | added | Desiree | Help with the correct sentence please | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:30 | comment | added | SovereignSun | Both sentences sound wrong to me. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:23 | review | First posts | |||
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:24 | |||||
| Apr 12, 2017 at 6:20 | history | asked | Desiree | CC BY-SA 3.0 |