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> "She said goodbye too many times before" I don't think makes sense if you're extremely literal about it, since I can't see what "before" would track to withou
by Majromax 3y ago
> "She said goodbye too many times before" I don't think makes sense if you're extremely literal about it, since I can't see what "before" would track to without the embedded past.
It would grammatically work if you interpreted 'said' as a habitual action.
"Before [the etiquette training], she said 'goodbye' too many times. [Now, she says it just once.]"
In the context of the song, I think the habitual interpretation makes sense; the lyrics speak of trying to break the pattern of a dysfunctional relationship. This also works in that "said goodbye" has figurative intent (meaning 'left the relationship') over its literal meaning of verbally expressing one's departure.
- hgsgm 3y agoI don't think that matches. In your version, "before" implies that something happened that affected the goodbye-saying. In the song, "before" is an adverb referring to the current time in the story, which does not impact the goodbye-saying. I can only make yours scan if I interpret it as "She said goodbye too many times before... I stopped taking her back.