>>>>
>>>>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 ."

To me that is the right one. When you say "they think" it implies a continuous action ("I think therefore I am" - doesn't mean I am thinking right at this moment, but the rest of the time my mind's blank). So "they think I said" implies a continuation of their "belief", as opposed to what they thought right at that moment.

Their noticing will be of something that has passed - what you said. If you said " ...that I say something other than they think I say" implies that this is a slogan, or common utterance of yours (eg an election speech), something you say frequently.


Difficult to explain the nuances between languages. eg in English one would say:
"I hope this continues until I am dead" whereas, in French one would say:

"I hope this continues until I will be dead"
>
>The last doesn't sound right to me.