Quote:
Originally Posted by chryuop
I hate grammar book...they always give these things as "pick which one you like coz they are the same!". Then you talk to some native speaker and they say they have a difference.
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Always assume there is a difference. In general, when it comes to simple patterns, there are virtually never two patterns that mean the exact same thing. If they did, there would be no need for another version. Every pattern has it`s own nuance and "rules".
But those are hard to remember at first... So most books resort to listing them all as the same meaning with the hope that as you progress and have more exposure to the language you`ll pick up on the subtle differences. A lot of those differences would be very hard to explain in text without quite a bit of context.
If the book never introduced them at all, learners would be stuck unable to comprehend anything but the simplest set patterns - which isn`t a good thing for a learner.