>>>
>>>FY enlightenment:
>>>
>>>" ... I meant something other than what they thought I meant."
>>>
>>>Not being pedantic or critical. I know you want to improve your English. Despite your protestation to the contrary that whole paragraph was practically flawless till the second-to-last (penultimate) sentence. :-)
>>
>>Wow, thanks! However, I dare to protest about 'thought' versus ' think'. I wrote:
>>
>>speakers will not ... notice ... I meant something else than they think ...
>>
>>The notion is that, in this case, if 'notice' is present tense. then also 'think' must be present tense.
>>
>>That's the rule in Dutch. Is it different in English?
>
>Ah but you're referring to something that you meant (so they thought).
>
>OK would have been:
>
>"... native speakers will not always notice that I mean something other than they think I mean."
>
>They either think you mean what you mean, or they thought you meant what you meant.
>
>You can't meant what you meant, cos they happened at different times.

I don't give up yet. Compare these lines:

"... native speakers will not always notice that I meant something other than they think I meant."
"... native speakers will not always notice that I said something other than they think I said."
"... native speakers will not always notice that I said something other than they thought I said."

The last doesn't sound right to me.