Question to native North American speakers I have the feeling that North American speakers sometimes say for instance ”I always was” or ”I never liked” when they mean ”I have always been” or ”I have n

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Mikkel

Question to native North American speakers I have the feeling that North American speakers sometimes say for instance ”I always was” or ”I never liked” when they mean ”I have always been” or ”I have never liked” - in other words when talking about a continuing state. I can't remember any specific example that I actually heard someone say, but I imagine it might be something like this: A: I bought a Dexter Gordon record last week. It's amazing. But I can't remember if you like jazz music? B: Sure, I always liked jazz. (The person still likes jazz) Am I right about this? Thanks for your help!

Answers · 11

When people say "I always liked jazz," I cannot be sure what is going on in their heads. My theory is that this is not so much a grammatical issue, but rather an evolution in pronunciation and sound. "I have" gets contracted to "I've," which then gets further contracted to "I." Certainly, when I hear "I always liked jazz," I mentally translate that into "I've" and _feel_ it and process it as "I've." I don't spend any time thinking "did he really mean that he has stopped liking it?" It's like many kinds of shortening and abbreviation. I heard someone say the other day "I thought Salem, Massachusetts would be interesting, because witches." Meaning "because of the famous association between Salem and witches."

You're right and this is lazy English, but in everyday conversation its okay. Sometimes we speak real fast and leave certain words out entirely but its okay in informal conversation. But in formal converstion and especially writing you will see it less. I find this happens with many languages. I am studying spanish and listening to Latin American spanish vs Castillian is like listening to two different languages sometimes. Especially cuban and dominican spanish. They dont like to pronounce the 's' sound for some reason.

You are right. North American speakers do often leave out the word "have" in such situations. The "correct" way to answer the question in your example would be, "I have always liked jazz," or less formally, "I've always liked jazz." This means that you always did and still do. Technically, "I always liked jazz" only means that you always did in the past, and says nothing about the present. However, it is common in everyday, informal English to use "I always liked jazz" to mean "I like jazz now, always have, and probably always will."

Yes, sometimes they might, but in general they'd say it with the word 'have'. Here are some examples of how a native speaker could reply to the question: A: I bought a Dexter Gordon record last week. It's amazing. But I can't remember if you like jazz music? B: Are you kidding me?! I've ALWAYS liked jazz! B: What?! I've always liked jazz! B: Yeah, I've always liked jazz. B: No, I've never liked jazz.

"I never liked" is especially common. I hear people say that all the time. It's colloquial though.

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