I had no idea you liked movies of this sort.
I had no idea you like movies of this sort.
Are both the above sentences grammatically correct? Would the first one be more grammatically accurate than the latter, since its tenses are in harmony?
asked Dec 23, 2015 at 14:45
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Why you didn't say "this sort of movies"? I am curious about it– CardinalCommented Dec 23, 2015 at 15:24
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I misread the question so I deleted my answer.– SchwaleCommented Dec 23, 2015 at 16:01
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@Cardinal: this sort of, of this sort: books.google.com/ngrams/…– TimRCommented Dec 23, 2015 at 16:02
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@Cardinal "this sort of" takes the singular: "this sort of movie" rather than "this sort of movies"– Charlie HardingCommented Dec 23, 2015 at 16:29
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1@Cardinal I believe that's the plural because sorts is also in the plural: "this sort of thing" means one group, whereas "these sorts of things" means multiple groups, which are closely related. In reality both can be used interchangeably, but generally only the former is used when referring to a single initial thing.– Charlie HardingCommented Dec 23, 2015 at 17:46
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2 Answers
I had no idea you liked movies of this sort.
I had no idea you like movies of this sort.
The first sentence is wrong, the second is OK.
In the first sentence "liked" is in the past tense, but "this" is in the present tense. So if you were discussing a movie you saw yesterday then the sentence should be:
I had no idea you liked movies of that sort.
The second sentence is about a movie, or kind of movie, under present discussion.
Both the sentences are grammatically correct.
The first sentence means that someone liked some sort of movies earlier whereas the second sentence means that someone likes some sort of movies at present.
