Since you were!

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RoseSpring

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Is this sentence correct?

You have become interested in reading since you were a child.
 

Rover_KE

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No. It's not at all clear what you mean.

Try again.
 

Raymott

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Context and intonation!
If a native speaker said it, I'd assume it meant, "When you were a child you weren't interested in reading. But since then, I see that you have developed an interest in reading."

If a non-native speaker said it, I would suspect that they might mean "You have been interested in reading ever since you a child".
 

birdeen's call

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Context and intonation!
If a native speaker said it, I'd assume it meant, "When you were a child you weren't interested in reading. But since then, I see that you have developed an interest in reading."

If a non-native speaker said it, I would suspect that they might mean "You have been interested in reading ever since you a child".
So do you consider using it in the first sense correct?
 

RoseSpring

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Context and intonation!
If a native speaker said it, I'd assume it meant, "When you were a child you weren't interested in reading. But since then, I see that you have developed an interest in reading."

If a non-native speaker said it, I would suspect that they might mean "You have been interested in reading ever since you a child".


I really meant to convey the second meaning but in a way that a native speaker can understand. How can I do so?
 

5jj

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crazYgeeK

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If a non-native speaker said it, I would suspect that they might mean "You have been interested in reading ever since you a child".

Is it understandable if remove the "ever" ?
I see that this sentence differs a little from the sentence in the OP.
1. You have been interested in reading ever since you a child.
2. You have been interested in reading since you a child.
3. You have been interested in reading ever since you were a child.
4. You have been interested in reading since you were a child.
The #4 differs from the sentence in the OP at the point that "been" stands for "become" !
What is the problem in the OP sentence ? At the verb "become" or the redundancy with "were" or the miss of "ever" ?
Thank you so much !
 

Raymott

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Is it understandable if remove the "ever" ?
I see that this sentence differs a little from the sentence in the OP.
1. You have been interested in reading ever since you a child.
This is meaningless without ‘were’.
2. You have been interested in reading since you a child.
This is meaningless without ‘were’.
3. You have been interested in reading ever since you were a child.
This is correct
4. You have been interested in reading since you were a child.
This is correct too.
The #4 differs from the sentence in the OP at the point that "been" stands for "become" !
What is the problem in the OP sentence ? At the verb "become" or the redundancy with "were" or the miss of "ever" ?
Thank you so much !

There’s no problem with the OP's sentence, as I pointed out, if it means what it says.
The difficulty is with the word ‘become’. There is an easily understandable difference between:
“You’ve been overweight since I saw you 10 years ago” ("You were overweight when I saw you 10 years ago, you are overweight now, and you have been overweight at all times between.) and
“You’ve become overweight since I saw you 10 years ago.” (You were not overweight when I saw you 10 years ago. You are overweight now. Therefore you became overweight during the period of time since I saw you last.)
Can you detect the difference?
 

crazYgeeK

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I thought that it may be incorrect if there is not "were" in the sentence, but that's all I've seen in your reply and no one has had an idea for that.
Yes, why can't I detect the difference when you explained so clearly ?
Thank you so much !
 

Raymott

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I thought that it may be incorrect if there is not "were" in the sentence, but that's all I've seen in your reply and no one has had an idea for that.
Yes, why can't I detect the difference when you explained so clearly ?
Thank you so much !
The absense of 'were' at the end of my post #4 is a typo. It happens.
 
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