"I felt calm and more composed than I had in a long time"
What does this sentence mean, especially in terms of "in a long time"? The meaing of "in a long time" and what does it modify?
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1Surely you can work out what it means., and which word it ties in with.– BillJApr 17, 2021 at 16:36
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than I had (felt)? and in a long time looks meaning 'after a long time'. If so, after a lot of time passed I felt calm more than I had felt calm in the past. Is this right?– gomadengApr 17, 2021 at 16:56
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1@BillJ Surely you can, but do keep in mind this site is for English language learners - at all skill levels. This might be a very tricky sentence for some.– TypeIAApr 17, 2021 at 16:59
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@TypeIA Yes it's not an easy one because I couldn't grab the exact meaning first time I read this one and uncertainty dominated and still under uncertainty.– gomadengApr 17, 2021 at 17:05
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1@Brandon Yes, essentially: "I felt calm and more composed than "I had felt (composed") in a long time". The bit in brackets is understood but not expressed, of course. "In a long time" means "in a considerable length of time".– BillJApr 17, 2021 at 17:12
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1 Answer
"I felt calmer than I had in a long time" means that for a long period of time before that moment, the person had not felt as calm / had felt less calm. Another way to phrase it is "It had been a long time since I felt so calm."
Depending on your native language, this might be easier to understand as "I felt calmer than I had since a long time before" but this is not at all idiomatic (don't say or write this!) and I write it this way only in case it helps (as some languages phrase it this way).
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Thx. I interprete the phrase means "I haven't been feeling calmer for or a long time but now I feel calmer than before" or "It's been a long time since I felt this kind of wonderful calmness."– gomadengApr 18, 2021 at 2:24