tense

[5jj]

When we experience things we don't know/haven't known/didn't know, we may be able to broaden our minds.

I have been following the thread with interest, unable to decide which I find the most natural. I have finally realised that I find none of them natural. It's not the tense, but the combination of not-knowing and then experiencing 'things'; it just doesn't work for me.

I think we can experience things we haven't met/encountered/experienced, etc before, and we can possibly experience the unknown (though there is only one citation in COCA, while there are thousands of other words that are experienced). However, I don't think we can know (or not know) things we can experience.

This is just a personal feeling.

[Taka]

Well, I think I find the first one illogical, while Bhai finds the second one the least natural, so it just goes to show you that it simply depends on what your perspective is at the time you say it, think about it, or experience it.

Are you looking at yourself then, but thinking about a time before? Are you thinking about yourself now, after having had the experience, so that your time of not knowing and your time of experiencing are both past? Tenses are more flexible than many people might expect them to be, and which one(s) you use will depend on where you mind is at the time you utter those words.

OK. And at least, the past tense here works for both of you. Good.

Thanks, Barb!

[Taka]

When we experience things we don't know/haven't known/didn't know, we may be able to broaden our minds.

I have been following the thread with interest, unable to decide which I find the most natural. I have finally realised that I find none of them natural. It's not the tense, but the combination of not-knowing and then experiencing 'things'; it just doesn't work for me.

I think we can experience things we haven't met/encountered/experienced, etc before, and we can possibly experience the unknown (though there is only one citation in COCA, while there are thousands of other words that are experienced). However, I don't think we can know (or not know) things we can experience.

This is just a personal feeling.

If it was 'When we experience things that we were not familiar with...', would it sound better?

[5jj]

If it was 'When we experience things that we were not familiar with...', would it sound better?

I am happy with 'not familiar with', but in that specific sentence, my first choice would be '.. that we are not familiar with'.

[Taka]

Right. If you are in the process of experiencing something, it can possibly be that you are not yet familiar with it. That's understandable.

Hmm...as far as I can see here in the discussion, it doesn't seem that the combination of 'experience things' and 'things we don't/didn't know' sounds clearly wrong to everybody.

But after a while, to some it might begin to seem wrong. I see. Interesting.

[mxreader]

[/I]I have been following the thread with interest, unable to decide which I find the most natural. I have finally realised that I find none of them natural. It's not the tense, but the combination of not-knowing and then experiencing 'things'; it just doesn't work for me.

I feel the same as 5jj here.


Taka,

In the sentences, I would pair "experience" with "experience" and not "experience" with "know".

e.g. ...experience things we haven't experienced before....

[Raymott]

Also, maybe it’s possible to broaden our minds by experiencing something for the first time that we have known about before – eg. love, sex, integral calculus?