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You know.. today I've been in my old company. I've been working there for 5 years and it was like seeing sliding doors (the movie I mean), like seeing a parallel life I mean.

Now I work abroad and my life has changed, but only a few months ago I was working there. And I could still been working there, doing the same street every day.

I'm happy to have changed.

  • Can I use the expression: "you know..", for starting a sentence? Is it idiomatic? Am I doing a rigth use of it? I use it for drawing attention.
  • The tense in the other two bolded sentence are rigth?
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    Which sentence? To avoid this question being closed as "proofreading" you need to be far more specific about which particular aspect of which particular sentence you're asking about. And show some evidence of having attempted to resolve your difficulty using standard reference sources.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 28, 2014 at 22:06
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    I will bold the passage on which I'm in doubt more. And explain why.
    – Revious
    Feb 28, 2014 at 22:18
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    What is the purpose of what you are writing? Are you writing a letter to a friend? Is it for a job application? Please give more context.
    – nxx
    Mar 1, 2014 at 12:20
  • @nxx: I'm writing to a girl which is a friend of mine. I'm confident with her (or is better to say in confidence with her?)
    – Revious
    Mar 1, 2014 at 13:02
  • You might mean "I have confidence in her" or "She is in my confidence". The latter means you trust her with your secrets. You should say in your question that it is a letter to a friend (informal context).
    – nxx
    Mar 1, 2014 at 13:12

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Let me try though NSs may help us better.

You know (that's fine!), today I had been to my old company where I worked for 5 years. And, it just seemed like what happens in (the movie) Sliding Doors (write the letters in capital). I mean a second version of mine was created then (this is the movie all about though I have not watched it)!

Now, I work abroad and my life has (completely) changed. (It's hard to believe) But, just a few months ago, I was working there and I would have been still working there doing the same job everyday (if I had not gotten the opportunity).

Note that the phrases in the brackets are optional but I think they clarify your concern better.

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I'll call out your three phrases and comment on each one individually

"You know.."

You need three dots for an ellipsis. Or use a comma instead. Otherwise, this is fine for an informal context.

I've been working there for 5 years and it was like seeing sliding doors (the movie I mean), like seeing a parallel life I mean.

This is largely fine, except as Maulik V says, capitalize proper names: Sliding Doors. You might drop the final 'I mean' for better flow.

And I could still been working there, doing the same street every day.

You need a past-perfect 'have' in there. You can say 'I could have still been working there' or 'I could still have been working there' or 'I still could have been working there'. I'm not sure what 'doing the same street' means, but I'm assuming it makes sense in context, and that 'doing a street' has a specific meaning that makes sense in regard to the old job.

(Advice to avoid splitting infinitives is nonsense, ignore it if you get that advice. English is NOT Latin and never should have been crammed into its ill-fitting shoes.)

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  • Isn't there an idiom "not to be on the same street as" that means "something completely different" or "something not as good as"? See Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. This is probably a use (or possibly a misuse) of that idiom.
    – Peter Shor
    Dec 24, 2018 at 22:32

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