comma

[navi]

1-In the first days of the project, when I saw him, he seemed happy.
2-In the first days of the project when I saw him, he seemed happy.

Is there a difference between the meanings of these sentences?
The only difference between them is that there is a comma after 'project' in '1'.

Gratefully,
Navi.

[JerrySmile]

I'd use

In the first days of the project, whenever I saw him, he seemed happy.

Two commas or none at all. Same meaning.

[Erik_Kowal]

Or just one:

In the first days of the project, whenever I saw him he seemed happy.

I agree that 'whenever' is superior to 'when' in this context; it better conveys the sporadic character of the encounters.

[navi]

Thank you both very much for your kind replies.

I think whether 'whenever' has to be used or not, depends on the intended meaning. One meaning of the original sentence is indeed the one that would come to the fore if 'when' is replaced by 'whenever'. That is doubtlessly the likeliest meaning, but is it the only one?



1-In the first days of the project, when I saw him, he seemed happy.

Couldn't this sentence mean:
a-In the first days of the project, when I used to see him, he seemed happy. (I did not see him after the first days but during the first days I saw him a lot)

Maybe the sentence could also mean:
b-I just saw him once during the first days of the project and he seemed happy then.

I am not really sure that this meaning could be 'extracted' from the sentence. The least one could do in this case is place the 'when' clause at the beginning.

3-When I saw him, in the first days of the project, he seemed happy.


What do you think?

Gratefully,
Navi.

[JerrySmile]

Those meanings are possible and I thought about them. However, a good writer should offer, if possible, an unambiguous rendition of his/her thoughts, thus I chose one of those meanings and focused on its best possible expression. Why replace the clear sentences that you have mentioned with a "good-for-everything" sentence that says different things to different people? Someone flying this way would be shot down by the first self-respecting editor he'd meet.

[navi]

Thank you so much Jerry.

Point taken. I would not write that sentence, but some people might. I am not an English writer, but might occasionally have to translate something from English. I have to be very careful with ambiguous sentences.

Sometimes, a writer might want to go for ambiguity. They deliberately do that kind of thing just to make life difficult for the rest of us!!!

Gratefully,
Navi.

[tony h]

However, a good writer should offer, if possible, an unambiguous rendition of his/her thoughts, thus I chose one of those meanings and focused on its best possible expression.

I imagine Croesus wished the oracle at Delphi had heeded your advice. And how many Agatha Christies would have core plots destroyed by this simple device.

[Erik_Kowal]

Life itself is full of ambiguities. They cannot be eliminated as easily.