I never know whether I had to break bad news because I know I had to fear more.”
From “Do no harm” by Henry Marsh : ‘Well, it’s
very difficult,’ I said in a gentler tone. “That is why she asked me to follow you this morning.” I’ve had to break bad news, I never know if I have done it well or not.’For the patients during an appointment, they aren’t going to ring me up about that because, well now, they know what’s going on. Marsh, I really like the way you said I was going to die,’ or ‘Mr. J. J. J. Smith, you are making a decision again and again and you make me regret with it,’ Marsh, you were crap. How can someone tell the truth? Doing so is very much justified: I have made a lot of mess out of it.’You can only hope that you haven’t made that messof it.
Why is “I never knew ” the correct name for “I never have known “, since he recalls for the occasion is in the period up to the present moment (he had)?
How do I just describe situations in which I intrude such a bad news?
The title is from the novel titled ‘Ependymoma’. Is there just one brain tumor that doesn’t exist yet that could be treated with brain tumor surgery? He asks a student to tell what he would tell this woman if he was her surgeon about everything they had known about him. The student fumbles for words, telling of “abnormality” and “mass effect” in brain. They are in trouble and in danger of injury. The student must fight. Neurosurgeon mocks such terminology, saying that will patient Guess the harsh truth anyway. The students stall. Have a stall! What did Henry Marsh say in the quote above or
after?
If the author is using the present-tense since he is saying that during the moment that he needed to tell bad news, he does not know if he is doing it well. What is and is reflected by the perfect, perfect have done?
I never know whether I have done it well or not
There are three time periods portrayed in this example (in reverse sequential order)
knowing the outcome (most recent or continuing)
whether a good job was done or not
breaking the bad news (furthest in past, but repetitive)
Since breaking bad news may be repetitive (whenever) in the future, the speaker might say When
I have to break bad news I never know if I have done it well or not In
your example, the speaker is relating his experiences.
When I had to break bad news
I never knew if I had done it well or not If the speaker were to contrast that he
used to not know how to break bad news, but now he knows a better way to do it, he might say When I had to break bad news I had
not known whether I had done it well or not
All forms, including your original example, are understandable. The
speaker was concerned with giving bad news as gently as possible
but was not sure how the bad news was received. As a speaker I have learned how to do that better.
When I have got to hear bad news I never know whether I made it well or not.
I never know
- I never know = the main clause
- whether I have done it well or not = the main idea
- when(ever) I have had to break bad news = the condition
(Perhaps many will feel more comfortable with the para above).
The context suggests that this is not a one-time thing (because of the patients in the next sentence). What is this (when) meaning in English?
I believe that the use of the perfect aspect is more appropriate is because it’s his reflection upon the past events when (read “after”) each instance of such events has happened and projects his thought into the future with little compared to the perfect aspect that came to him. In such cases, it’s unlikely it’s going to change in the foreseen future.) This kind of sentence,
though not very common, is not too rare to find on the web. I know
that whenever another person has chosen to know me and be with me only for my sake, I have tasted the future; I have tasted the reality of resurrection.
— Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships Article by Andrew Root, p. Wheneverhe has been choragus, you know, his choir has always won. Delphi
Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated), p.2. ” — Delphi Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated), p.2. 857.63.8772
k/a: (877) 857.6878.906.905.915. .
I have just had my first cup of coffee. Is there any food in the cupboard to take with it? I’m not drinking coffee at the moment. I also want to watch more. If someone asks me how I’m feeling, I might say that I’ve just had a coffee. That’s a description of my current state.
Is it true that people don’t smoke while drinking coffee? How does smoking make coffee taste better when it goes down? I always have a strong urge to smoke so after coffee, I can’t stop myself from thinking about it further. I don’t want to smoke when I’m smoking, but I want to have a cigarette after having a coffee.
What does it feel like when you have some
- coffee when you want to smoke it? (not good)
The problem here is that the sentence sounds like it’s describing me wanting to smoke while I’m drinking coffee. I really want to describe the situation I’m in when I’ve already had my coffee. In a coffee, I want to go to a
- cigarette I got, but then want to finish off with a cold cup. How is the present perfect?
Where does a person says when having cigarette he needs coffee? Apparently this sentence was written before the war. Notice that it is not about the past. I’ve been lying for over 2 weeks now about my thoughts and opinions. What is the general time? I am always into a cigarette and that should the last thing I want when I’ve had a cup of coffee.
Now think about the speaker in the original poster as an example. They often have to give patients bad News. If you phone a patient up up and ask them how they are, they might say I have had to give a patient bad news. I just wanted to make this better. They’re using the present perfect here because the making bad news action is finished, but the phrase have had to give a patient patient bad news tells you something about their present situation.
Now this writer regularly has to give patients bad news. After telling them bad news, he often thinks about whether he gave the bad news in a bad way. How much time might someone have for this? Maybe he sleeps for a few hours, maybe a couple days. When he thinks about it, he never knows if he gave him the news in a good way or not. What does there look like?
What do the writers know about things? He thinks about it afterwards when he is in an I’ve recently had to give someone good news situation. I’ve definitely been affected. Considering I have a bad news to break, when
- you have been told good news, you’ve got
to break bad news… This sentence isn’t about the past, it’s about my every time that my professor is saying “‘Now i’ve got that bad news now’. What happens when we talk about whether someone broke the news poorly or not; we are going to be thinking about it for another 6 or 7 days. What will happen? I don’t
know when I shall be in this world. The one who said it, it’s how I know.
Here he uses the present simple to indicate it is always how he feels in this post-breaking bad news situation.
Let
us talk about “the anchor time” i.e. the time the author wants to break bad news. Is there any good news before Christmas when bad it happens? He uses the Present Simple for the second clause because it describes the mental state he always has during this anchor time, the post breaking bad news situation.
If they are going to change some words in the sentence to make it less complicated, how would they make it clearer? They could use whenever instead of when. How does one understand that this may be a recurring situation? Secondly, the writer could use the word recently or simply. If I’ve just had to break bad news to someone, I never know whether I’ve done it well or not.
But now I can’t have this problem.
What is the best way to discuss this subject/topic with a foreign language professional?
