[Grammar] The meaning of "She likes it when I play the guitar."

[GoldfishLord]

(1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
(2) When I play the guitar, she likes it.
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Questin 1. Would you let me know whether the meaning of (1) is exactly the same as that of (2)
Question 2. Would you let me know whether (1) and (2) are always interchangeable?

 

[jutfrank]

What possible difference of meaning do you think there might be?

The difference between the sentences is the order of clauses. The meaning of each clause is the same in each, but for some reason, in (2) the speaker has decided to change the most likely order. Maybe your question should be something like: For what reasons might a speaker use (2) instead of (1)?

 

[probus]

To digress a bit, I have noticed a trend among younger speakers to omit the "it" in the first one. They say: she likes when I play guitar. This annoys me, but of course they say it anyway.��

 

[GoldfishLord]

What possible difference of meaning do you think there might be?
Maybe your question should be something like: For what reasons might a speaker use (2) instead of (1)?

(1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
(3) I loved history when I was at school.
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(3) means "I loved history during the time that I was at school". In the same way, does (1) mean "she likes it during the time that I play the guitar?

 

[jutfrank]

I have noticed a trend among younger speakers to omit the "it" in the first one. They say: she likes when I play guitar. This annoys me, but of course they say it anyway.��

I don't like when they do that, either.

 

[jutfrank]

(1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
(3) I loved history when I was at school.
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(3) means "I loved history during the time that I was at school". In the same way, does (1) mean "she likes it during the time that I play the guitar?

Very basically, yes, but you shouldn't actually say during the time that in these sentences, of course.

There is some difference in use, however. You might understand the use of when in (3) as meaning something roughly approximate to under the conditions that. Here's a similar example:

My cat likes it when I scratch her back.

The focus here is not on time, but on condition, where when is similar to if. When the condition of scratching her back is met, she is pleased.

 

[Raymott]

Didn't you just have the same question about the moon?
In any case, my point is that the meaning of these sentences is not immediately obvious without a context. The meaning depends in what "it" refers to.

A: Does she like your sister's singing?
B: (1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
B: (2) When I play the guitar, she likes it.
That is, she likes my sister's singing when I play the guitar. This could be because the sister's singing drowns out the noise of the badly played guitar. It's not my guitar playing that she likes.

A: "Do you like to go horse-riding at night?"
B "I like it when the moon is full"; "When the moon is full, I like it."
This is the same principle. The sentences mean the same, but they don't necessarily mean what you think.

 

[GoldfishLord]

Very basically, yes, but you shouldn't actually say during the time that in these sentences, of course.

There is some difference in use, however. You might understand the use of when in (3) as meaning something roughly approximate to under the conditions that. Here's a similar example:

My cat likes it when I scratch her back.

The focus here is not on time, but on condition, where when is similar to if. When the condition of scratching her back is met, she is pleased.

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(1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
(4) When he watches television, he falls asleep
If it means the situation, Do when and When have the same meaning?

 

[jutfrank]

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(1) She likes it when I play the guitar.
(4) When he watches television, he falls asleep
If it means the situation, Do when and When have the same meaning?

You can think of sentence (1) as equivalent with or without it.

 

[GoldfishLord]

You can think of sentence (1) as equivalent with or without it.

Thank you very much for helping me improve my English.

(1) She likes when I play the guitar.

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I think "when" means "at every time that" and (1) means "She likes at every time that I play the guitar".
Do you agree with me?

 

[Matthew Wai]

"When" refers to "the times" in "She likes the times when I play the guitar".